Seismic Hazard Characterization of 69 Nuclear Plant Sites East of the Rocky Mountains: Methodology, Input Data and Comparisons to Previous Results for Ten Test Sites.

摘要

The Eastern United States Seismic Hazard Characterization Project (SHC) is the outgrowth of an earlier study performed as part of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Systematic Evaluation Program (SEP). The objectives of the SHC were: (1) to develop a seismic hazard characterization methodology for the region east of the Rocky Mountains (EUS); and (2) the application of the methodology to 69 site locations, some of them with several local soil conditions. The method developed uses expert opinions to obtain the input to the analyses. The hazard estimates are reported in terms of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and 5% damping velocity response spectra (PSV). A total of eight volumes make up the report which contains a thorough description of the methodology, the expert opinion's elicitation process, the input data base as well as a discussion, comparison and summary volume (Volume VI). Consistent with previous analyses, the study finds that there are large uncertainties associated with the estimates of seismic hazard in the EUS, and it identifies the ground motion modeling as the prime contributor to those uncertainties. The data bases and software are made available to the NRC and to the public uses through the National Energy Software Center (Argonne, Illinois).