Our Sellafield - August 2020

Updates Evolve Finance News August 2020 Our Sellafield Safeguards are responsible for ensuring that our nuclear materials are stored safely and that we can measure and account for them. Whilst we carry out inspections internally, we also have to allow external inspectors on to the Site to verify our checks. When we ran down the operations on the site back in March in response to Covid-19, it meant that we had to seal off our special nuclear materials stores from a safeguards point of view. As measures were put in place and travel restrictions started to be lifted, we were able to facilitate a three- day inspection visit by International Atomic Energy Authority and Euratom inspectors to our special nuclear material stores, in early June. Clare Woowat, corporate lead for nuclear material accountancy and safeguards said: “We carried out verification activities to ensure electronic seals, monitoring equipment and signals performed as expected during the extended absence period. “We also took the opportunity to work with the inspectors and completed vital statutory maintenance thus ensuring safety and security compliance. “Once again the plant operators deserve the praise for delivering a professional service during testing times. “It’s also important to recognise other teams such as the Pass Office, Training, Wardens, Security, Health Physics and my own team for delivering a successful outcome. “The inspectors were pleased with the organisation and appreciated our consideration for their welfare while on site. “As this was the first international inspection in the UK since travel restrictions were lifted, there has been a high-level of attention on the results from NDA, ONR and BEIS. “We have fed back the learning across the NDA estate and using our contacts in the Safety Directors Forum, passed on the experiences to other UK facilities who are carrying out their own inspections over the next few months. Safety Safeguards in safe hands