Communicating Safety

Safety is the foundation of business at Magnox Electric, formerly Nuclear Electric. They place it above all other considerations and aim to operate to the safety standards of the world's best utilities; therefore, continuous, up-to-date, accurate communication with the staff is paramount.

To achieve this, Magnox stations, that pioneered the commercial use of nuclear power in the 1960s and continue to help supply much of the country's base-load electricity needs, have just installed a state of the art Magnox Station Information System at Dungeness 'A'. This derivative of the Interchange corporate information system, InstaNet, has been so successful since its inception that it has now attracted interest from other Magnox Stations, including Berkeley, Wylfa, Hinkley and Oldbury.

Peter Coe, from Dungeness 'A's Business Development team, explains why they have implemented such a system. "The staff had called for improved communication in the last attitude survey we carried out and the new system is part of the station's response to that request. The station did have a system in place but it was very unreliable and inflexible.

Interchange's system, because of its more up-to-date technology, has many technical advantages and should be far more robust than the old one. I chose Interchange because, after an extensive search of the market place, Interchange were the only company I could find that could offer a full technical solution, installation and project management ability, after sales support and a proven track record. And so far they have fulfilled all their promises."

Further confidence in the Interchange System was demonstrated by Gordon Ashley, Head of Business. "Co-operation on design, installation and support was impressive. You listen to your customers."

Nadine Crook and Heidi Ashdown, System Operators said, "Picture quality is excellent. The main system is easy to use and emergency messaging is even easier"; sentiments which were reinforced by Mike Shannon, Head of Maintenance when he stated, "Quality is excellent. Versatility and ease of use mean we are finding more and more ways of using it."

Peter Coe continues: "We use it to process different types of information of various categories. These are then broadcast at specific times of the day over two separate channels and extra channels can be added with no infrastructure change at all."

"At the moment our system is run and controlled by our administration section, but we have just appointed a dedicated communications officer from Personnel who will be responsible for further developments."

Another feature of the system is its ability to broadcast real time data. This is used very effectively by Magnox, automatically broadcasting the current mega-watt output on a regular basis across the site, keeping staff fully aware of their achievements.

In the unlikely event of an emergency, information on all channels can be overwritten by emergency messages. This feature was used to good effect in an emergency exercise and received a glowing endorsement from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. Graham Moore, Emergency Preparedness Engineer, commented: "The ease of use and clarity of the emergency messaging makes it ideal for unambiguous communication to all site personnel in a timely fashion."

Peter Coe continues: "The system is modular: which means we have been able to add the next stage, to bring the same information to the desktop. This has been achieved by the integration of Interchange's new InstaNet System".

The last word goes to Ray Jepps, Head of Services; "The flexibility of the system is most impressive, It will enable us to do things we haven't done before."

Other Case studies: Logica - Sheffield University