HSE
The Health & Safety Executive
HSE – The Health & Safety Executive is the UK Government's organisation for protecting people against risks to health or safety arising out of work activities. Its mission is "to prevent death, injury and ill health in Great Britain’s workplaces". The HSE does this not just through inspection, investigation and enforcement but also through research, providing information and advice and promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice.NDT plays a role in ensuring the safety of plant and installations and is required by such legislation as the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 and the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 (COMAH). As such, the HSE's Hazardous Installations Directorate (HID) has supported research into NDT over many years. The Hazardous Installations Directorate covers high hazard industries and sectors including chemical manufacture and storage, gas storage and transportation, offshore oil and gas extraction and mining where NDT is extensively applied.
The other HSE division which has a big impact on NDT is the Nuclear Safety Directorate (NSD). The NSD's role is to secure effective control of health, safety and radioactive waste management at nuclear sites in the United Kingdom. This area is likely to become more important to the NDT industry with the possibilities of new nuclear generating plant being built in the near future.
For more information on the HSE see:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/index.htm
For more information on HSE documents on NDT (PANI 3 report and NDT Guideline documents) see:
What the Hec?! in the September 2008 issue of NDT News.
Some other examples of HSE research reports relevant to NDT are:
- RR509 Plant ageing: Management of equipment containing hazardous fluids or pressure. http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr509.htm
- RR659 Evaluation of the effectiveness of non-destructive testing screening methods for in-service inspection.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr659.htm - RR481 Recommended practice for magnetic flux leakage inspection of atmospheric storage tank floors.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr481.htm - CRR 363/2001 Best practice for risk based inspection as a part of plant integrity management.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/crr_htm/2001/crr01363.htm
