Executive summary
Date(s) of inspection: October 2024
Aim of inspection
ONR has selected to undertake this inspection to follow up on the Enforcement Letter, dated 15 February 2024, Ref: DRDL71421R, Unique Number: ONR-EL-23-045.
ONR intends to focus on the compliance against the duties imposed under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, in particular Articles 8, 9 and 11.
Subject(s) of inspection
- Fire (Life Safety) Compliance Inspection - Rating: Amber
Key findings, inspector's opinions and reasons for judgement made
The purpose of the inspection was to follow up on the Enforcement Letter, dated 15 February 2024.
It was apparent that the DRDL Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Team has made significant steps towards improving the allocation, and recording, of actions from the site fire risk assessments, therefore a large portion of the Enforcement letter has been met. However the walk down of selected facilities revealed that there was still further work required to embed the actions through to remedy.
It was my opinion that there were still some deficient arrangements for compliance with legal requirements. Therefore, I rate the inspection on the compliance against the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 as AMBER – formal action required.
Conclusion
Feedback was provided at the end of the inspection, recognising the work done by the SHE team to implement the new action tracking and governance arrangements. However, through observations made on the walk downs of the facility I judged that the new arrangements hadn’t yet been able to sufficiently embed changes fully across the site to implement necessary fire safety provisions through to remedy. I therefore judged that that aspects of the Licensee's arrangements for compliance with the statutory requirements of the Fire Safety Order 2005 were deficient.
I further conclude and confirm that this inspection identified no matters that may impact significantly on nuclear safety, but noting the ONR guidance on inspection ratings, I determine that an inspection rating of AMBER (formal action required) is merited for this Fire Safety inspection. Subsequent to this, the following actions have been taken:
A regulatory interface meeting with DRDL was held on 21/11/2024 to identify and discuss the shortfalls identified and agree remedial actions.
The existing Regulatory Issues Database entry RI-11898 has been updated to reflect the items which have been completed and to track progress against the remaining action.