Written question asked by Eddie McGrady (Social Democratic & Labour Party), in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 18 December 1996. It was answered by Paul Beresford (Conservative) on Wednesday, 18 December 1996 on behalf of the Department of the Environment.

Dept of the Environment

Question: What assessment he made of the health and safety consequences of incidents (a) during the construction of the THORP re-processing plant at Sellafield and (b) since it commenced operational activity.

Answer: Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he made of the health and safety consequences of incidents (a) during the construction of THORP at Sellafield and (b) since it commenced operational activity. [9145] Sir Paul Beresford: Conditions attached to the Sellafield nuclear site licence require BNFL to have arrangements in place to investigate and report incidents at THORP to HSE's nuclear installations inspectorate. These apply throughout the lifetime of the plant, including the construction stage. Additional arrangements exist to comply with other regulations such as the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1985 relating to non-nuclear incident reporting. The HSE routinely monitors BNFL's arrangements including the conduct of its investigations, and carries out separate investigations where appropriate, which take into account the health and safety consequences of the particular incident. Significant incidents are reported in the HSE's quarterly statements of nuclear incidents.

Secondary information