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Sellafield Limited / National Nuclear Laboratories IRR17 inspection of the Active Handling Facility (AHF)

  • Site: Sellafield
  • IR number: 19-104
  • Date: October 2019
  • LC numbers: N/A

Executive summary

The Active Handling Facility (AHF) is a nuclear facility on the Sellafield nuclear licensed site that is leased and operated by National Nuclear Laboratories (NNL) with health physics support contracted out to Nuvia. NNL operations are carried out under the authorisation and supervision of the Licensee, Sellafield Limited (SL).  Operations include post-irradiation examination of nuclear fuel and irradiated materials, radioactive waste processing and management and the handling and management of radioactive sealed sources.

This report presents the findings of a planned intervention that was undertaken in order to assess compliance with the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 (IRR17) within the AHF.

Interventions Carried Out by ONR

The intervention consisted of an examination of the implementation of arrangements to secure compliance with the requirements of IRR17 by discussion with key facility personnel and inspection of plant. The key requirements examined were those relating to the following IRR17 regulations:

  • Regulation   8 (Radiation Risk Assessments)
  • Regulation   9 (Restriction of Exposure)
  • Regulation 14 (Radiation Protection Adviser)
  • Regulation 15 (Information, Instruction and Training)
  • Regulation 17 (Designation of Controlled and Supervised Areas)
  • Regulation 13 (Contingency Plans)

Explanation of Judgement if Safety System Not Judged to be Adequate

Not applicable, this was not a System Based Inspection.

Key Findings, Inspector's Opinions and Reasons for Judgements Made

The following summarises the key observations arising from discussions, sampled documentation and inspection of the facility during this intervention:

  • We were satisfied with the documentation sampled during the intervention with particular regard to the quality of the risk assessments.
  • We noted that none of the Zinc Bromide windows on Cave 5 had been replaced with lead glass during the current window replacement programme. NNL reported that Cave 5 is not currently operational, and the fuel within it cannot currently be relocated in order to allow window replacement to be undertaken. At the close out meeting we articulated to NNL and SL the need to give appropriate consideration to the prioritisation of Cave 5 refurbishment and window replacement, subject to operational constraints.

Conclusion of Intervention

In conclusion, I judged that, on the basis of evidence sampled at the time of this inspection, compliance with IRR17 was demonstrated and an inspection rating of Green (no formal action) is appropriate.