BAE Systems Ordered to Improve Fire Safety at Nuclear-Sub Shipyard
The defense and security contractor building the next-generation nuclear submarines for the Royal Navy has been ordered to improve its safety measures after a fire broke out at its Barrow-in-Furness shipyard in October last year.
BAE Systems Marine, which is building the UK’s largest and most powerful fleet of attack submarines, has been served with an enforcement notice demanding improvements on its safety practices. The notice, served by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), gives BAE Systems until September 12 to put in place measures that “ensure the protection of workers in the event of a fire."
The notice follows a fire that broke at the company’s Barrow-in-Furness site in Cumbria, where the Astute- and Dreadnought-class boats are being built. ONR found that five employees entered an area in the Devonshire Dock Hall facility when the fire was still raging in the early hours of October 30. As a result, two employees were taken to hospital for treatment, though they were discharged and returned to work on the same day.
Inquiries concluded that BAE Systems' arrangements for ensuring workers did not enter places of danger without the appropriate safety instructions were inadequate. In essence, the company lacked guidance to inform staff on the required actions in the event of a fire.
The UK nuclear industry regulator has gone ahead to serve BAE Systems with an enforcement notice under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. “We will continue to engage with BAE Systems Marine during the period of the enforcement notice to ensure positive progress is made to address this shortfall,” said Bruce Archer, ONR’s Head of Propulsion Sites Regulation, Operating Facilities Directorate.
BAE Systems is tasked with building the next generation submarines for the Royal Navy and has since handed over five of the Astute class boats. A further two boats named Agamemnon and Agincourt are currently under construction. The company is also building the Dreadnought class submarines that will replace the Vanguard class when they enter service in the early 2030s. Work on the first two boats is underway in Barrow.
Covering about six acres, the Devonshire Dock Hall facility is the second-largest indoor shipbuilding complex of its kind in Europe and is critical in the delivery of the boats. The facility was opened about four decades ago.
BAE Systems reckons it has invested more than £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in advanced technology and upgraded infrastructure at the shipyard to enable it to deliver Dreadnought. The company also intends to invest a further £450 million ($605.6 million) over the life of the program. Approximately 10,000 people work on the Dreadnought and Astute submarine program at the Barrow site.