Seismic risk analysis for the Babcock and Wilcox facility, Leechburg, Pennsylvania
The results of a detailed seismic risk analysis of the Babcock and Wilcox Plutonium Fuel Fabrication facility at Leechburg, Pennsylvania are presented. This report focuses on earthquakes; the other natural hazards, being addressed in separate reports, are severe weather (strong winds and tornados) and floods. The calculational method used is based on Cornell's work (1968); it has been previously applied to safety evaluations of major projects. The historical seismic record was established after a review of available literature, consultation with operators of local seismic arrays and examination of appropriate seismic data bases. Because of the aseismicity of the region around the site, an analysis different from the conventional closest approach in a tectonic province was adapted. Earthquakes as far from the site as 1,000 km were included, as were the possibility of earthquakes at the site. In addition, various uncertainties in the input were explicitly considered in the analysis. The results of the risk analysis, which include a Bayesian estimate of the uncertainties, are presented, expressed as return period accelerations. The best estimate curve indicates that the Babcock and Wilcox facility will experience 0.05 g every 220 years and 0.10 g every 1400 years. The bounding curves roughly represent the one standard deviation confidence limits about the best estimate, reflecting the uncertainty in certain of the input. Detailed examination of the results show that the accelerations are very insensitive to the details of the source region geometries or the historical earthquake statistics in each region and that each of the source regions contributes almost equally to the cumulative risk at the site. If required for structural analysis, acceleration response spectra for the site can be constructed by scaling the mean response spectrum for alluvium in WASH 1255 by these peak accelerations.
- Research Organization:
- TERA Corp., Berkeley, CA (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG=48
- OSTI ID:
- 5868981
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-15078; TRN: 80-000159
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Seismic risk analysis for the Westinghouse Electric facility, Cheswick, Pennsylvania. [Plutonium fuel development facility]
Calculation of particulate dispersion in a design-basis tornadic storm from the Babcock and Wilcox Plant, Leechburg, Pennsylvania
Related Subjects
58 GEOSCIENCES
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
EARTHQUAKES
RISK ASSESSMENT
FUEL FABRICATION PLANTS
SEISMICITY
PENNSYLVANIA
ATTENUATION
DATA COMPILATION
GRAPHS
MICROEARTHQUAKES
SEISMOLOGY
STATISTICAL MODELS
TABLES
USA
CENTRAL REGION
DATA
DATA FORMS
INFORMATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUMERICAL DATA
SEISMIC EVENTS
510500* - Environment
Terrestrial- Site Resource & Use Studies- (-1989)
580201 - Geophysics- Seismology & Tectonics- (1980-1989)
050400 - Nuclear Fuels- Feed Processing