1 Jun (NucNet): The UK’s Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) is planning to carry out, by the end of March 2016, four inspections of operations it says are essential for continuing hazard and risk reduction at the Sellafield nuclear site in northwest England, a document released today shows.
The chief nuclear inspector’s summary programme plan gives further details about the ONR’s annual plan for 2015-2016, which was released in March 2015.
That plan said hazard reduction and remediation at Sellafield is the priority for the ONR and will continue to be so “for many years to come”.
The ONR said Sellafield is one of Europe’s largest industrial complexes, storing more radioactive material in one place than any other nuclear facility in the world.
The document released today says hazard reduction and remediation at Sellafield is one of the ONR’s core activities.
It also says that by the end of February 2016 the ONR plans to evaluate Sellafield Ltd’s evidence that it has adequate human resources to ensure safe and secure operation of the site.
Sellafield Ltd is responsible for decommissioning, reprocessing and nuclear waste management activities on behalf of the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the body which implements government policy on managing the UK’s nuclear legacy.
On new build, the ONR said today it is aiming to complete the Step 3 assessment of generic design assessment (GDA) for Hitachi-GE’s UK advanced boiling water reactor (UK ABWR) by September 2015, and complete “a mid-step review” of the GDA for Westinghouse’s AP1000 by November 2015
The ONR also plans to approve an “intervention strategy” for NuGen Ltd, setting out the ONR’s regulatory approach for engagement leading up to licence applications for three planned AP1000 units for Moorside in Cumbria.
In January 2015 the UK government stripped private consortium Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) of the contract to clean up Sellafield.
The government said ownership of Sellafield Ltd would revert to the NDA from NMP, which took control of Sellafield Ltd under contract to the NDA in 2008.
The government said Sellafield consumes 60 percent of the NDA’s £3 billion ($4.5 billion, €4.1 billion) annual budget and houses the vast majority of the UK’s civil nuclear waste.
The Sellafield site comprises of a range of nuclear facilities, including redundant facilities associated with early defence work, as well as operating facilities associated with the Magnox reprocessing programme, the thermal oxide reprocessing plant (Thorp), the Sellafield mixed oxide fuel plant and a range of waste treatment plants.
It began life in the early 1950s making plutonium for nuclear weapons, and later that decade became the location of Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station.
The chief nuclear inspector’s summary programme plan is online: http://bit.ly/1d97vzo
