Caithness.org News Bulletins

Improved management of safety at Dounreay has helped the site to earn its highest ranking yet on the International Safety Rating System.

The plant has been graded Level Eight, placing it among the top five per cent of industrial units that are audited by the independent foundation Det Norske Veritas (DNV).   Established in 1864 and based in Oslo, DNV's 5500 staff world-wide consist mostly of highly qualified engineering and technical personnel who provide services for managing risk and carry out audits to measure industrial units against the ISRS.

DNV, an international organisation with 300 offices in 100 countries, currently audits approximately 6,000 industrial units world-wide and is recognised as a leading international authority on risk management in sectors such as shipping, offshore oil and gas and nuclear.

Dounreay entered the ISRS at Level Five in July 1998 and achieved Level Seven in November 1999.

Site director Peter Welsh said: "I am delighted that independent assessment of our approach to safety management has produced this result. Achieving Level Eight means that our arrangements and practices to achieve high standards of safety and minimising costs arising from unplanned events are now at the highest international standard.

Level Eight is a credit to all the staff at the site and demonstrates our commitment to achieving the highest possible standards in safety and environmental protection."  Confirmation of Level Eight on the ISRS follows the publication on 22 January 2002 of the Final Report by HSE/SEPA on the 1998 Safety Audit of Dounreay, which confirmed that all 89 recommendations that could be closed out within the period had been closed out.

DNV's William Hamilton, who is based in Aberdeen, said: "This is an excellent performance which shows the commitment of Dounreay in maintaining and improving their established loss control system. Staff at Dounreay should be congratulated on their significant achievement."

DNV's International Safety Rating System is a comprehensive audit of management's performance and comprises 10 levels. To reach Level Eight, Dounreay had to surpass minimum scores in 15 different areas, ranging from leadership, communication and accident and incident analysis to security, planned inspections and maintenance, and training.

'Loss control' is the minimisation of accidental losses such as injuries, illness, property damage, process losses, quality losses and regulatory infringements that can impair the effectiveness of an organisation.

Only four sites in the UK have achieved Level Nine and Dounreay is now among six in the UK graded at Level Eight. Sixty-five per cent of sites are Level Five or below.