Making Nuclear Facilities More Resilient - Earth and Environmental Sciences Area

Source: David McCallen and Dan Hawkes

In cooperation with the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center at UC Berkeley, Berkeley Lab (and ESD prominently within it) was among the organizers of the recent Pacific Rim Forum on the Earthquake Resilience of Nuclear Facilities, held in Berkeley earlier this month (June 8-9, 2015).

The Forum brought together 70 experts from around the Pacific Rim, including leading researchers, government officials, and commercial sector participants. Forum attendees discussed the most effective approaches for dealing with earthquake uncertainties through risk-informed, performance-based design, recent developments in advanced computational tools for earthquake simulations, emerging seismic design technologies (e.g., seismic base isolation) and emergency response and mitigation (including smart UAV deployed sensors). The overarching objective was to share recent lessons and developments for enhancing the earthquake resilience of nuclear facilities, and to identify technological gaps and research needs.

Berkeley Lab participants included David McCallen (Earth Sciences Division), Bob Budnitz (Earth Sciences Division), Boris Jeremic (Earth Sciences Division / UC Davis) and Kai Vetter (Nuclear Science Division / UC Berkeley). Also participating were Professor Steve Mahin (UC Berkeley Civil Engineering and Director of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center) and Per Peterson (UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering). Industry representatives included Farhang Ostadan (Bechtel) and Doug Rake (Rake Strategies). International participants came from the University of Tokyo, the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, and the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum.

Organizing Committee, L-R: Farhang Ostadan (Bechtel), Doug Rake (Rake Strategies), David McCallen (LBNL-ESD/UCOP), and Steve Mahin (Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center/UC Berkeley Civil Engineering)

The Forum was financially supported by the American Association for Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, and the Nuclear Risk Research Center of Japan.

For more information on the program, download the program here »

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