Insurance Survey of Hartlepool NPS

An International Insurance Re-inspection was held at Hartlepool NPS on the 21-22 of January, 2014. NPS is situated at the coast of the North Sea, North East England.

The Committee included representatives of

• Nuclear Risk Insurers Limited (NRI, UK),

• Assuratome (France),

• European Mutual Association for Nuclear Insurance (EMANI),

• European Liability Insurance for the Nuclear Industry (ELINI),

• Russian Nuclear Insurance Pool (RNIP, Russia), which was presented by Mr.Anatoly Nikitin, Deputy technical director.

The Survey was mainly aimed:

• to detect and analyze possible insurance risks of  Hartlepool NPS in order to arrange TPL and MD insurance                     

• to estimate productive capacity of NPS and to check the main equipment and systems of the station for correspondence to specified limits and conditions.

• to trace the decrease of insurance risks due to remedial recommendations given on the results of the previous insurance Survey

• to check availability of spare parts for repairing the main equipment

• to review ongoing operation activities of NPS

• to check fire safety level of NPS

• to discuss the action plan for further improvement of  design and safety level of Hartlepool NPS, analyzing the events at The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

At the meeting the leaders of NPS and the experts of EDF Energy provided the information regarding ongoing activities of Hartlepool NPS, opportunities for its further development, modernization and upgrading of the safety level of power generating units, analyzing events at Fukushima NPS, Japan. The results of WANO inspection which had been previously held at Hartlepool NPS were presented at the meeting.

The inspectors checked the safety level of reactors used at Hartlepool NPS, analyzed the way of operating, estimated the personnel’s skills level, fire safety level of NPS’s facilities, discussed agenda issues with NPS’s experts.

From the Survey at Hartlepool NPS the preliminary results and recommendations aimed to reduce possible insurance risks were presented to NPS’s leaders.

For your information:

Hartlepool power station is a nuclear power station situated on the northern bank of the mouth of the River Tees, 4.0 km south of Hartlepool in County Durham, North East England. It provides electricity using two 1575 MWth advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) to heat two 660 MWe generators, giving a maximum generating capacity of 1,320 MW. The station’s net electrical output is 1,190 MW.

Hartlepool NPS provides electricity for about 2-3% of the UK.

Hartlepool was only the third nuclear power station in the United Kingdom to use AGR technology.

The construction starting in 1969, the station started generating electricity in 1983, and was completed in 1985.

The power station was originally expected to shut down in 2009, but it was decided in 2007 that it can continue to generate until 2014. In 2010, the lifetime was further extended by another five years, so that generation can continue until 2019. An announcement was made in November 2013 that the plant would have a further extension to its operating life of 5 years taking the expected decommissioning date to 2024.                 

Information source: Wikipedia