Nuclear Industry Fire Safety Co-ordinating Committee (NIFSCC)

About us

Purpose:

  • To provide a forum for members of the nuclear industry to consider and debate fire safety and fire service management issues.
  • To encourage the adoption of appropriate standards of fire safety and fire service management and compliance with them.
  • To act as the focal point for fire safety and fire service management within the nuclear industry and as a conduit for technical advice, information and support.
  • To liaise with government, standards makers, Local Authority Fire and Rescue Services, Regulators.
  • To advise the Nuclear Industry Safety Directors’ Forum (SDF) on fire safety matters and to address nuclear fire safety issues as requested by the SDF.
  • To take action in the interest of fire safety by promoting and supporting the initiatives put forward by the Loss Prevention Council and Local Authority Fire and Rescue Services.
  • To strive continuously for the reduction of fire losses within the industry and consequent threat to life, property and of injury.

Meetings will be held six monthly, normally in April and October. To promote awareness of the challenges and arrangements across the sector, these meetings will rotate around the member organisations and sites. Where appropriate a formal talk or presentation by an invited speaker(s) may be included in the agenda. The host company will cover the administrative costs of the meeting.

Mission

To sponsor agreed and acceptable Fire Safety best practice throughout the Nuclear Industry, following discussions among all interested parties. Provide a forum for the dissemination of relevant information on Fire Safety and Fire-Fighting in the Nuclear Industry, and to act as co-ordinated mouthpiece for nuclear fire safety interests with Regulators, Government and Standard-makers.

Programme of Work

Recent activity

The NIFSCC continues to provide the opportunity for licensees to discuss conventional fire safety, fire engineering and fire fighting within the nuclear environment. It has provided licensees with the opportunity to discuss key events that have taken place within the industry, share learning and best practice and discuss pertinent issues affecting the industry with respect to fire. Examples of this include:

  • Sharing of ‘what’s going well’, ‘What’s not going well’, ‘What to watch’ and ‘Remedial actions’ by licensees in summary 4 box models.
  • Identification of common areas of improvement required across the industry through ONR attendance helping to identify ‘joined up’ improvements across the industry as a whole.
  • Shared learning of fire tests conducted at BRE for scaffold sheeting.
  • Shared learning from visits to Washington hall to review the new USAR facilities and how they would respond to nuclear emergencies.
  • Review of revised CFOA guidance on the response to Acetylene cylinder fires and guidance from BOC regarding the safe use of Acetylene vs Propane.
  • Review of potential conflicts with requirements for electrical cabling in escape routes within BS7671 (Requirements for Electrical Wiring Installations) and Approved Document B.
  • Continual review of fire related legislation, British Standards and other guidance. NIFSCC continues to be represented on the BSI Committee FHS/14 (Fire Standards) to influence guidance with respect to the needs of the nuclear industry.

Future Programme

  • Fire Risk Assessment Workshop – October 2016
  • Reintroduce ‘Topics for Discussion’ first item to be control of transient combustibles.
  • Reintroduce CPD based short training sessions for members utilising contacts with fire engineering consultancies and other members.
  • Through the provision of quarterly standards updates, continually review and where necessary influence fire related legislation, standards documents and
    guidance.
  • Continue to share best practice and learning from events through organisations 4 box models.

More Information

Useful Documents

Terms of Reference for the NIFSCC

Links to other sites:

http://nifscc.org/wp-login.php  Note that a password is required to access this site. 

Contact Us:

For more information regarding this group please contact the secretary or the chair:

The Display template control is missing a FrontEndLayoutSection with ID of leftColumnSection