Lancashire County Council
Emergency Planning Service (LCC)
Report for the Springfield Site Stakeholder Group Meeting
Monday 13th April 2015
Emergency Planning Consultative Committee (EPCC)
The last meeting of the EPCC was held at Lancashire Police Headquarters on Wednesday 11th February 2015, chaired by Lancashire County Council Emergency Planning Service.
Items of note:
- UK Nuclear Emergency Planning / Nuclear Emergency Planning and Response Programme
Nuclear Emergency Planning continues to be managed nationally through the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) through the National Nuclear Emergency Planning and Response Programme Board supported by 5 Project Boards. The Boards are supported by working groups including the Local Authority Working Group, Blue Light Working Group, Recovery Project Board and the Health Working Group. Lancashire County Council Emergency Planning have representatives on a number of groups to contribute to the development of the UK's nuclear emergency planning arrangements.
The Consolidated Guidance is currently being reviewed through DECC and revised chapters are currently out for consultation.
Lancashire County Council participated in a national nuclear recovery exercise in London on 18th November 2014, led by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) who would take the lead on nuclear recovery. The aim of the exercise was to consider recovery issues from the central government perspective based on an incident at Heysham Power Station and involved three groups comprising of Central Government, a scientific advice group and a local recovery group. The scenario looked at three timeframes – 24 hours, 4 weeks and 2 years following the incident. The exercise proved really useful enabling interaction and clearer understanding of the issues being faced at the local and the national level and the demands placed on each.A debrief report has been produced which identified greater clarity on roles and responsibilities at the national level, governance structures and decision making. The learning will be taken forwards through the national Recovery Working Group.
- Springfields Off-Site Exercise
The date for the off-site exercise (Exercise Heron 6) previously reported as Wednesday 14th October 2015 has now been amended to Wednesday 7th October 2015.
The exercise will be a full live joint on-site and off-site exercise, with the activation of the On-site Emergency Control Centre (ECC) with the following multi agency off-site emergency centres established and fully operational:
- Strategic coordination centre (SCC),
- Science and Technical Advice Cell (STAC)
- Recovery Working Group (RWG).
- Strategic Media Advisory Cell (SMAC)
There will also be activation of local organisations control centres and national control centres. The first planning meeting was held following the EPCC meeting on 11thFebruary 2015, and a number of sub-groups have been set up to take the planning forwards including a scenario sub-group and a media sub-group. The next meeting will be held in June.
- Familiarisation and Training
To support the exercise and as part of our training programme, a training session has been arranged for Thursday 3rd September 2015. The session is primarily aimed at staff who would be involved in the response to an off-site nuclear emergency at the site at an operational or tactical level, or who would be based in their own emergency control/operations centre. Following the course participants will be given the opportunity to attend a site tour.
- Springfields Off-Site Plan
Following the review of the Springfields off-site plan the revised plan was issued on 1st December 2014 (version 4.0), in the new format of plans produced by
Lancashire County Council, known as "the three box model". As reported at the last meeting, emergency plans will now comprise of a suite of documents that can be used separately or in a selected group to provide the appropriate response to the relevant incident.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) have met with Lancashire County Council to assess the off-site plan and exercises that are undertaken to ensure the plan meets the requirements of the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations2001 (REPPIR) and exercises being undertaken to test the plan covers all essential elements and there are no gaps. The off-site plan for Springfields Fuels Ltd is one of the first to go through this process. It has been confirmed that the plan met the criteria and a written assessment has now been received to confirm this.
Paula Bull
Senior Emergency Planning Officer
Lancashire County Council
23rd March 2015