Executive summary
Date(s) of inspection:
October 2025
Aim of inspection
In accordance with the Office for Nuclear Regulation’s (ONR’s) Sellafield Strategy, each year ONR performs a series of planned inspections to seek assurance of compliance against selected licence conditions, targeted at those facilities with significant importance to nuclear safety. One such inspection was undertaken at Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) facilities North and South within the Sellafield site in West Cumbria to sample evidence of implementation of Sellafield Limited's arrangements for compliance with Licence Condition (LC) 36 (Organisational capability) in order to inform a regulatory judgement regarding the licensee’s compliance with its legal duties under the nuclear site licence.
Subject(s) of inspection
- LC36 - Organisational capability - Rating: Green
Key findings, inspector's opinions and reasons for judgement made
The inspection was undertaken on 8 October 2025 by the SNM site inspector and a Leadership and Management for Safety specialist inspector. The inspection targeted compliance against Licence Condition (LC) 36 (Organisational capability).
The inspection involved a planning phase and a site visit, which included discussions with relevant Sellafield Limited personnel, review of records, and sampling of information contained within electronic databases and other documentation.
Based on the evidence sampled, I concluded the following:
- No significant matters were identified that required immediate regulatory attention.
- Sellafield Limited demonstrated that it has an adequate understanding of its nuclear safety baseline, which it is actively managed to accommodate both recent and future anticipated changes to its business and with an appropriate level of governance and oversight.
I sampled the Control and Supervision Baseline and the Minimum Safety Staffing Levels (MSSL) documents for SNM North and South and found that the documents had completed due process at properly constituted meetings of the local MSC. However, I identified a minor anomaly relevant to the review and update of the Cross Plant Resource Agreements stated in MSSL for SNM North. I judged it appropriate to raise a Level 4 Regulatory Issue (RI-12782) to address this minor shortfall against the licensee’s corporate arrangements.
Sellafield Limited has also adequately implemented its corporate arrangements for Management of Change, and overall are managing organisational changes.
I provided regulatory advice to continue monitoring and managing the fatigue levels, due to SNM personnel working excessive hours, and to consider appropriate actions, as necessary. Sellafield Limited provided me with assurance that improvements to staff availability have been made, and will continue to monitor this area of concern.
Conclusion
On the basis of the evidence sampled at the time of the inspection, I found that SNM is compliant with the licensee’s corporate arrangements for LC 36.
Taking all of the above into account, and noting the ONR guidance on inspection ratings, it is my opinion that an inspection rating of GREEN (i.e. no formal action) for Licence Condition 36 is merited here. One L4 RI raised for Sellafield Limited to review and update the Cross Plant Resource Agreements for SNM North and update the MSSL as necessary.