Date(s) of inspection
- November 2023
Executive summary
Aim of inspection
This inspection aimed to confirm that the appropriate Control and Instrumentation (C&I) related statutory outage activities that are necessary to support safety case claims have / will be undertaken. The inspection involved a sample review of Heysham 1 (HY1) Reactor 1 (R1) (027) statutory outage activities carried out in relation to C&I equipment and systems important to nuclear safety and considered compliance of the associated arrangements in relation to Licence Condition (LC) 28 – examination, inspection, maintenance and testing (EIMT). The findings of this inspection contribute to ONR’s regulatory decision to grant Consent to the return of R1 to normal operating service in accordance with LC30 – periodic shutdown.
Subject(s) of inspection
- LC28 – Examination, inspection, maintenance and testing – Rating: Green
Key findings, inspector’s opinions and reasons for judgement made
During the inspection we sampled examination, inspection, maintenance and testing (EIMT) related activities on C&I equipment and systems important to nuclear safety, based on the schedule of activities contained within the Heysham 1 (HY1) Reactor 1 (R1) (027) outage intentions document (OID).
During the inspection we held discussions with several C&I equipment and system stakeholders and found that they had a good understanding of the systems and equipment they were responsible for and that they appreciated the importance of the statutory outage work being undertaken.
We found the activities we sampled had either been satisfactorily completed or were on schedule to be completed. It should be noted that in relation to the latter we were confident, based on the information provided, that the outstanding EIMT activities would be completed satisfactorily.
We raised one Level 4 (L4) Regulatory Issue (RI) relating to chloride ingress protection system (CIPS) conductivity probes spares availability (RI-11822), and will monitor its progress through to resolution through normal regulatory business. It should be noted that we did not consider that this issue posed an immediate or significant risk to nuclear safety or needed to be addressed before R1 returns to service.
We conducted a plant walkdown during the inspection and found the operating conditions and lighting levels afforded a comfortable working environment for maintainers. We did not identify any significant signs of age-related degradation with respect to the items of C&I equipment we examined. We also found the general standard of housekeeping to be adequate. However, we did identify a small number of housekeeping and maintenance record keeping issues, which HY1 formally captured and will track through to resolution. However, it should be noted that we did not consider any of these issues would pose an immediate or significant risk to nuclear safety. Nor did we consider that any of them need to be addressed before R1 can return to service.
Conclusion
Based on our sample inspection of the C&I aspects of the HY1 R1 2023 statutory outage (027) we have assigned an intervention rating of Green to LC 28 (EIMT) compliance.
We raised one L4 RI relating to CIPS conductivity probe spares availability, which has been recorded in WIReD as RI-11822, and will monitor its progress to resolution through normal regulatory business. It should be noted that we did not consider that this RI posed an immediate or significant risk to nuclear safety or needed to be addressed before R1 returns to service.
We did not identify any significant issues in relation to the C&I equipment and systems during this inspection that could prevent ONR from issuing a Consent to allow HY1 R1 to return to service. Based on our sampled inspection of the C&I aspects of the HY1 R1 2023 statutory outage (027), we recommend that support be given for a Consent to allow R1 to return to service. This is subject to the completion of the planned EIMT activities and the completion of any emergent work.