Executive summary
Date(s) of inspection: February 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 Value Stream (SNM) North and South facilities within the Sellafield site in West Cumbria to sample evidence of implementation of Sellafield Limited's arrangements for compliance with Licence Condition (LC) 22 (Modification or experiment on existing plant) 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
- LC22 - Modification or experiment on existing plant - Rating: Green
Key findings, inspector's opinions and reasons for judgement made
The inspection was undertaken on 5 February 2025 by the Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) Value Stream site inspector. The inspection targeted compliance against Licence Condition (LC) 22 (Modification or experiment on existing plant) at SNM North and South facilities.
The inspection involved a planning phase and a site visit, which included discussions with relevant Sellafield Limited personnel, review of records, 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.
I was overall satisfied with the authoring, reviewing, endorsing, implementation and closure of PMPs.
I saw evidence that Sellafield Limited has suitable and sufficient oversight in place to monitor the Plant Modification Proposals (PMPs), Temporary Plant Interventions (TPIs), Red-line Drawings and other software modification. The control of live and overdue PMPs appeared adequate.
The training records for several personnel (PMP Managers, PMP Committee Chair and Independent Member) were completed and in-date.
The training records for several personnel (PMP Managers, PMP Committee Chair and Independent Member) were completed and in-date.
Two Level 4 (i.e. lowest level) regulatory issues were raised to allow ONR to monitor progress in addressing the identified minor shortfalls in the areas of Tier 1 and 2 assurance, and appointment in writing of the PMP Committee Chair.
Regulatory advice was also given as appropriate.
Conclusion
On the basis of the evidence sampled at the time of the inspection, I found that, on balance, SNM North and South are broadly compliant with the licensee’s corporate arrangements for LC 22.
Taking all of the above into account, and noting the ONR guidance on inspection ratings, it is my opinion that, on balance, an inspection rating of GREEN (provisional) (i.e. no formal action) for Licence Condition 22 is merited here.
I intend to raise two Level 4 (i.e. lowest level) regulatory issues to allow ONR to monitor progress in addressing the identified minor shortfalls.