Post Fukushima Safety Evaluation for a Nuclear Facility

Benoit Bosco* and Jean-Michel Thiry** * Engineer, AREVA E&P Organization ** Expert, AREVA E&P Organization Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster brought to light the need for the nuclear industry to better protect its installations against extreme events. In Europe it is now mandatory to analyse consequences of such events for Nuclear Power Plants, and in France in particular it has been extended to all nuclear installations. For AREVA, it relates for example to the fuel cycle facilities for which safety after an extreme earthquake (extreme meaning with ground motion level well over those predicted by the hazard studies) needs to be ensured. A kernel of equipments and buildings that was necessary to control the fundamental safety functions of the installation was defined and its robustness against seismic loadings was analyzed. Past events with beyond design ground motions showed that existing industrial facilities offer margins against seismic loadings due to design conservatisms. In order to better estimate the actual capacity of the equipments and buildings that forms the kernel, those conservatisms need to be accounted for. Identified failure modes need also to be adapted to the actual inability to perform the fundamental safety functions. Hence, different methodologies have been implemented to estimate the robustness of the kernel: Using existing design documents and identifying margin factors resulting from codes and design methodology. It can be related to the structure ductility, which is accounted for in multiple standards as a reduction of the load but is often set aside in the design. It can be also the safety margin in the design. Material characteristics used in the design are also conservative values. Highly uncertain phenomenons such as soil structure interaction are often taken into account with a lot of conservatism. Using existing design models with increased seismic loadings and updating the analysis. This allows the separation of the influence of the weight. Using advanced non-linear methods such as the push-over analysis. It takes into account the non-linear behaviour of the structural elements and gives an estimate of the deformation that the structure can withstand through plastification and redistribution.

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