Executive summary
Date(s) of inspection:
October 2025
Aim of inspection
To assess compliance with the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 (IRR17) with regard to dose management and dose restriction during the statutory outage.
Focussing on arrangements to demonstrate compliance with IRR17 regulations 8 (radiation risk assessment), 9 (restriction of exposure), and 13 (contingency plans), and observation of working practices within the radiologically controlled area (RCA) against company standards and relevant good practice (RGP).
Subject(s) of inspection
- IRR17 - Rating: Green
- LC18 - Radiological protection - Rating: Green
Key findings, inspector's opinions and reasons for judgement made
The inspection provided suitable time to discuss the EDF Heysham 1 R2 statutory outage ALARP report, examine documentation and undertake a plant walkdown.
The focus of the inspection was on the management of dose exposures to workers ensure they were restricted to as low as reasonably practicable as required by the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017.
It also provided an opportunity to review local arrangements in respect to the requirements of Licence Condition 18 – radiological protection.
EDF demonstrated they clearly understood the dose and radioactive contamination challenges presented during the outage.
EDF displayed significant focus on contamination control and learning from previous events to reduce the number of personal contamination events during this outage.
Accepting that the overall collective and individual doses estimates are low, I was content that EDF have robust dose tracking tools to monitor doses across the outage and that any deviation from the estimated doses are acted upon quickly.
A plant walkdown provided the opportunity to observe work being undertaken. A small number of observations were made, which I will follow up during routine interactions with the site Head of Radiological Protection.
I did note a number of good practice initiatives to help reduce the number of radiological related events during the outage.
Overall I was content that at the time of the inspection dose exposures related to the outage work were being managed to ALARP, and dose reporting arrangements provided the necessary information.
Conclusion
I judged that, on the basis of evidence sampled at the time of this inspection, compliance with those aspects of IRR17 reviewed was demonstrated, and that outage dose exposures are well controlled. Additionally there are suitable arrangements in place for the monitoring and reporting of dose exposures under the requirements of LC18, and an inspection rating of Green (no formal action) is appropriate.