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HNC Unit 18 assignment 1

Health and safety

Name: Evan Ellis

Company: Urenco ChemPlants

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Introduction
My name is Evan Ellis, I am a 3 year CE&I Apprentice, my sponsoring company is Urenco
Chemplants. I began my apprenticeship completing 18 months of training at TTE where I
completed many different modules covering a lot of different topics relating to maintenance
and engineering. Whether theory or practical my knowledge grown a lot over my time there.
Whilst at TTE I completed my BTEC level 3 in operations and maintenance. As of April 2019
I started my time on site four days a week and on day release at TTE to complete my HNC
which I started in September along with an NVQ in Electrical, once this is complete I will then
begin my NVQ in Instruments.

Introduction to Urenco Chemplants

Urenco Chemplants is one of Urencos 3 plants based on the Capenhurst site, here at
Urenco Chemplants we have a process which deconverts the ‘tails’ which is essentially the
leftover radioactive material from the cylinders that were full before the contents was
enriched which allows this to be sold on and used in various ways by various companies that
are customers of Urenco. These cylinders are received by UCP from UUK.
The deconversion of UF6 is achieved by reacting UF6 as a gas to create Uranyl Fluoride,
this is further reacted with steam and Hydrogen to produce U3O8 powder and Hydrogen
Fluoride (HF) vapour. All reactions take place with efficient, specially designed units which I
am not allowed to discuss in detail due to the confidentiality of the plant.
The remaining U3O8 is highly reactive and is stored in containers for long term storage. The
HF gas is cooled and liquefied to Hydrofluoric Acid which can be sold as a byproduct to our
customers maximising profits and reducing waste.
All of our activies are scrutinised and regulated by the Health and Safety Executive, The
Office of Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency.

P1 – Describe the key features of health and safety regulations in the workplace.

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974:

Within all workplaces no matter what the industry there are many regulations which are put
in place to ensure that all safety requirements are met and that the workplace is overall a
safe working environment for all workers. All of these regulations are covered by a primary
piece of legislation known as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASWA.) The local
authorities of the workplace are responsible for enforcing the act, however, the employer
must take their own role in being compliant and protecting employees. There are many
duties that the employer are given to ensure are applied to themselves, their employees and
the public. With this there are also many duties that the employees are given to ensure are
in place to protect themselves and others. Serious consequences can occur if anyone is to
disregard and not follow these duties.
At Urenco, understandably health and safety is a vital part of the work that is carried out,
adherence to HASWA is present in abundance on this site as in such highly hazardous
environment injuries and accidents that can potentially occur can be seriously damaging to
the people involved, the company, the environment and the public.

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations (RIDDOR)

1995:
Applying to any worker from employers, self-employed or anyone who is in control of
premises. Reporting of any injuries or incidents that occur in a workplace that are dangerous
is a legal requirement. Whether this is a cut or bang from tools, ill health at work or
equipment or a life threatening injury. All must be reported the correct way.

To keep a report through RIDDOR the correct way is as follows:

● Recording all reportable accidents, injuries, illnesses, dangerous occurrences, work
related deaths and specific injuries lasting more than 7 days.
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● Keeping all records in a file, accident book, on a computer or in a written log.

● RIDDOR reporting is done through an online reporting system via the HSE website.
● Understanding and patterns in injuries and accidents to be considered when
undertaking risk assessments.
● Keeping all records organised and up to date. In the event of a claim the insurance
company will need to look at records.
● All employees RIDDOR records must be kept strictly confidential and stored away
securely.
Reporting of injuries is taken seriously in Urenco for many reasons, mainly to help prevent
the same situations occurring in the future. By reporting it keeps a log of all accidents that
have occurred how they occurred and the consequences of them. It gives Urenco the
availability to be able to distinguish any trends that are present in the injuries that keep
occurring and to put in measures to prevent or reduce the risk of them occurring again.

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002:

COSHH is a regulation that ensures certain control measures are put in place when
potentially hazardous substances are apparent in the workplace, therefore reducing the
potential harm and risk of injury in relation to their use. Not all industries need to do a
COSHH assessment to be legally compliant. However if a COSHH assessment shows
potentially harmful substances being present then the employer will need to take action to
ensure that the risk of harm is reduced or eliminated fully. This could include storage, correct
use of or preventing exposure to them.

Substances that are most commonly COSHH assessed are:

● Chemicals and products containing chemicals
● Mists
● Dusts
● Vapours
● Fumes
● Gases
● Biological Agents
At Urenco Chemplants we use various substances that are hazardous to health in our day to
day processes. From Nitrogen being present in rooms which can cause asphyxiation to
Hydrogen Fluoride ( and Hydrofluoric acid) being stored and processed which can cause life
threatening burns. The measures that are put in place at UCP are critical to keeping the
employees safe. Along with the potential radiation contamination.

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998:

PUWER was first published in 1992 and superseded with more detail in 1998. It is a
regulation that covers the use of all working equipment in the workplace from machinery to
handheld equipment, any piece of equipment that is used on a daily basis. The regulation
applies to any worker, industry or workplace whether small or big that uses equipment.
Following this regulation is a legal responsibility. PUWER is set to ensure that all people in
control of or working in the same area as working equipment can do so in a safe manner that
will eliminate or at least highly reduce the risk of injury of any size.
Alike all regulations that are legally required to be followed, disregarding the importance of
doing so and not complying can lead to serious consequences such as fines and worst case
scenario jail time.

Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) 1998:

LOLER is a regulation that ensures the correct methods are used when carrying out lifting
operations and using lifting equipment ensuring that these tasks are carried out in a safe
manner and reducing the risk of injury when doing so. Also to ensure that the lifting
equipment being used is maintained correctly and safe to use. There are three main
protocols that employers must abide to be compliant with the reg:
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1. All equipment must be safe and suitable for purpose. The manufacturer must identify
any hazards associated with the equipment in question, they must than assess these
hazards to bring them down to acceptable levels.
2. All personnel must be suitably trained. All manufacturers of lifting equipment are
obliged to send out instructions for use of all products. The employers is then obliges
to make sure employees are aware of these instructions and use the lifting
equipment correctly. To achieve this employees must be competent. Competency is
achieved through experience, technical knowledge and training.
3. All lifting equipment must be maintained in a safe condition.
At Urenco along with many sites, there are many jobs that require the worker to lift
equipment. Upon becoming an employee you are assigned various training sessions to
ensure that you are correctly trained to do specific tasks, lifting being one of these. When
lifting any piece of equipment correct training is necessary to reduce the chance of an
accident occurring and injuries. All lifting equipment is inspected on a schedule to ensure
that it is fit for use and in date.

Confined Spaces Regulations 1997:

A confined space is a substantially enclosed area, most often but not always entirely.
Serious injury can occur in these areas for many reasons, being trapped, nearby operations
causing problems, hazardous substances causing asphyxiation or lack of Oxygen also.
Employers are to abide by the regulation by law and put in certain controls when working
with confined spaces. The best method is to avoid doing so entirely. Understandably this
isn’t possible in some cases. The main duties that an employer is to follow are:
● Avoid entry to confined spaces, for example, by doing the work outside.
● If entry to the confined space is unavoidable, follow a safe system of work.
● Put in place adequate emergency arrangements before the work starts.
There are many examples of what a confined space could be, some of these could be a
storage tank, an enclosed drain, underground pipeline (sewage.), silos and many more.

PPE at Work Regulations 1992:

Employers have an obligation to ensure that the work being carried out is in the safest
manner possible. This is achieved in many different ways with many different precautions
taken. The last resort to be taken to eliminate the risk of injuries, although still a very
important one is PPE. Employers need to ensure that PPE is provided and also adequate
training is given to ensure that the PPE is used correctly. PPE must also be stored and
maintained correctly so that it is in good condition and will be most effective if relied on. PPE
must be provided free of charge to employees and should come at no cost to any employee.
Duties of employees regarding PPE include:
 PPE must be worn and used in accordance with the instructions provided with them.
 PPE must be visually examined before use.
 Any loss or obvious defects must be immediately reported to the line manager.
 Employees must take reasonable care of any PPE provided to them.
At Urenco PPE is vital, along with all the other measures that are put in place to prevent
PPE from having to protect you. With this there are many jobs that require further PPE than
your standard hat, gloves, glasses and boots. Such as when completing a task with potential
radiation present, further overall protection and an air fed hood is needed. When working in
the HF area of the site a full chemical suit is required that completely seals all parts of your
body off from potential contamination to the substances that can be dangerous.

Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992:

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In regards to this regulation the definition of manual handling is ‘any transporting or

supporting of a load (including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving
thereof) by hand or bodily force’. The regulation was created to reduce harm and minimise
the risk of injuries when handling an object, animal, person or anything that needs to be
physically handled. Reducing injuries to yourself and others that can be affected.
Stated by the HSE, there is a ranking of measures to deal with risks associated with manual
handling, they are listed below:
1. First – Avoid hazardous manual handling operations so far as reasonably practicable.
2. Second – Assess any hazardous manual handling operations that cannot be
avoided.
3. Third – Reduce the risk of injury so far as is reasonably practicable
All workplaces put manual handling operations in place to ensure that the risk of injury when
carrying out manual handling tasks is reduced. Urenco is no different. Manual handling tasks
that create a risk of injury are tried at most to be avoided but when they cannot be avoided
then it is important that the correct training and procedures are followed when the tasks are
carried out.

Working at Height Regulations 2005:

With working at heights it is clear that there is a high risk of serious injury and even death,
whether from falling or from things dropping from a height it was necessary for the HSE to
implement this regulation to ensure that tasks carried out at height were safe and these
incidents are avoided. It outlines employer and employee requirements and controls in place
when carrying out activities from heights. The work needs to be sufficiently planned,
supervised and carried out by competent people. Anyone who will be carrying out work from
heights must have had the necessary training beforehand. And also ensuring the correct
equipment is used. An initial risk assessment must always be carried out before any work
from height, the employers have a duty of care for the health and safety of their employees,
and the employees have a duty of care for the health and safety of themselves and anyone
who can be affected by their work.
Alike all plants, At Urenco there are many tasks that need the worker to be elevated or at a
high point to carry out the work. When doing so various pieces of equipment is used,
whether it is a ladder, a MEWP or a scissor lift. All of the equipment that is used needs to be
inspected regularly and deemed fit for use and the people who carry out the tasks have to be
fully competent through training and information that is relevant to the task. The task has to
be properly planned out.

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR):

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 were introduced to
reinforce the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It outlines the employers obligations to
reinforce the health and safety requirements of all day to day activities that are carried out.
There are a set of duties for the employers and for the employees on maintaining and safe
and healthy working environment. An important duty for the employers that is enforced by
the MHSWR is to carry out risk assessments that identify potential hazards to employees
and any affected personnel and ensure they are safe in work. There are many other
requirements enforced by the MHSWR which include; a written health and safety policy if
you have 5 or more employees, access to competent health and safety advice, ensuring
there is adequate and appropriate supervision in place, and instruction and training for
employees in how to deal with all of the risks.
As stated at the start in regards to HASWA all regulations that are put in place are vital to be
followed within the workplace are Urenco. All employers and employees adhere to the
regulation in many ways, sometimes seeming like overkill but when working in such a
hazardous environment it is much better to have more control measures and rules in place
to ensure adherence as things can go wrong.
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Electricity at Work Regulations 1989:

The Electricity at Work Act Regulations 1989 applies to all aspects of the use of electricity
within the workplace. It is almost a guarantee that all workplaces have the use of electricity
and this brings forward many potential hazards and risks of injury. Duties are placed on all
workers, employers, employees and self-employed. Duty holders must; have electrical
systems constructed in a way that prevents danger, maintain electrical systems
appropriately to prevent danger, and carry out work on electrical systems in a way that
prevent danger. Electrical systems must be constructed to ensure protection against
weather, temperature and corrosive conditions. Training, knowledge and experience must all
be an asset of the person that is carrying out work ensuring that they are competent to do
so, if this isn’t the case then they must be supervised by a person who is to ensure their
safety and workplace safety.
Urenco is a plant with many electrical systems in place to ensure that the plant works and
the work that is necessary can be done. Maintenance tasks and many other jobs that are
carried out on the plant have a potential of coming across electricity. Sufficient training and
correct procedures need to be followed when working with electricity to ensure that all risks
are avoided and overall protecting yourselves and others from the potential danger.

P2 – Explain the role of the health and safety executive in health in the workplace.
To describe the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) briefly, they are an independent
regulator that ensure that ensures that all legislation and regulations are followed by any
workplace that it affects. They regulate work related health, safety and illness. They work
with the publics best interest to seriously reduce the risk of ill health, serious injuries or even
work related deaths. They are guided by the fundamental Health and Safety legislation,
HASWA which is the primary piece to all Health and Safety Regulations.
The HSE provide enforcement with the following methods:
 Providing Advice, Information and Guidance
 Raising Awareness
 Operating Licensing Activities in Major Hazard Environments
 Carry Out Inspections and Investigations
The HSE do not need to gain authorisation or book a reasonable time to enter any
workplace premises. They can turn up unannounced at any time. They have the power to
inspect and investigate all work activities, photograph and sample anything they want to,
seize and destroy any dangerous items or take information and statements. The HSE also
have the power to close down any workplace and stop production if the workplace is thought
to be unsafe and the company will not be allowed to reopen until the HSE is satisfied that it
is safe and these laws and regulations are going to be followed.

M1 – Analyse the consequences of employers not abiding by health and safety

legislation and regulations in the workplace.
It is a criminal offence if employers are known/find out to be disobeying the rules and
regulations that are put in place by the legislation and regulations that are put in place such
as HASWA in regards to the health and safety in the workplace. The effect that this can have
on a company can be very serious and there are a large number of consequences that the
employer can face if they are not abiding by the rules. There is a spread in potential
consequences, from minor to major whether being forced to make a change in work routines
to improve the health and safety or something much more serious like jail time.
A major consequence that is most common when it comes to this sort of thing is fines being
given to the employers for non-compliance to the regulations, dependant on the serious of
the situation this could be a large amount, the fines can commonly reach hundreds of
thousands of pounds with legal costs, costs of prosecution etc all taken into account. As
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mentioned you can also find individuals can be imprisoned for more serious ignorance in
regards to following the rules, with sentences possibly reaching as long as 2 years. Even
though jail time is not guaranteed and can sometimes be avoided, you will have the stigma
of criminal action/potential conviction over your head and on record which could hinder
future employment.

Besides legal action and consequences that are resulted from negligence to the rules, a
company can face many other consequences that will affect the company in other ways,
such as loss of reputation that the company will have built up over time, down time leading to
loss of production, loss of current or potential employees. Customers or potential employees
will often look at the companies brand and reputation, especially in regards to health and
safety of the workplace, jeopardising this and negatively affecting the company’s image can
have serious negative effects as people will not want to work somewhere unsafe. As stated
previously, the HSE have the power to shut down or stop production of a workplace at any
given time when carrying out investigations or inspections that they commonly carry out if
they found the work being carried out was not to a good standard. This costing the company
in various ways, from legal costs to loss of profit through productions as the companies
production is halted.

My workplace is Urenco Chemplants, there are three companies with plant operations on
site here at Capenhurst, UUK, UCP and UNS. All are regulated in addition to the HSE by the
ONR (Office for Nuclear Regulations.) These provide further rules in regards to Nuclear sites
and work being carried out with Nuclear materials present. Very similar to the HSE. The
ONR can issue licenses for work to be carried out to these sites that are deemed suitable.
Whilst also having the power to remove them as quickly as they are issued if the work is
unsafe. It is very important for Urenco to oblige by all regulations that are issued by the ONR
as well as the HSE to ensure safe work as understandably Nuclear work carries a large
amount of very serious health and safety hazards if unsafe work is carried out, along with
these high risks the company could face serious legal consequences and other problems in
regards to loss of production, customers and potential employees like stated earlier with any
company.