Reinforced Concrete Design

Seismic activity risk to be reviewed at Peach Bottom plant

In fact, the nuclear-powered plant is designed to run safely if rattled by seismic activity more than four times that generated by last month's quake, said plant spokesman David Tillman, .

In addition, Peach Bottom was built to withstand a quake 10 times that of the one that originated in Virginia more than a week ago, he said.

"And there is plenty of safety margin built into that," Tillman said. "Peach Bottom is a robust and fortified facility built on solid bedrock and the containment structure's walls are made of reinforced concrete."

And while regulators have concluded that no plants are in immediate danger from seismic hazards, one federal agency has concluded that areas around 27 reactors have shown potential signs of increased seismic activity, said Neil Sheehan, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman.

Peach Bottom's Unit 2 and 3 made that list of 27 reactors and will undergo additional review to ensure that it is equipped to safely shutdown in the event of a stronger-than-predicted earthquake, he said.

"This study, which used updated U.S. Geological Survey models on seismic risks, has been under way for years, and the NRC has not reached any conclusion," Sheehan said.

Earlier this week, the commission released the draft of a letter detailing the initial phase of the commission's seismic review.

Along with that draft, the NRC is seeking public comment that will help shape a final letter requiring all nuclear power plants to re-examine their sites' seismic risk, he said.

"Those letters will go out to all the plants, but it's those 27 reactors that the NRC is particularly interested in," Sheehan said.

Once the plants respond, the NRC will reach conclusions on whether the sites are adequately protected from the seismic activity in a particular area.

Free webinar: Design of a reinforced concrete section in Frilo Statics ...

Last year, Nemetschek Scia released in co-operation with its German subsidiary Nemetschek Frilo different standalone applications for specific calculations according to the Eurocodes. For detailed information, click here.

One of these applications is the module B2: Design of reinforced concrete sections. The B2 application allows you to perform cross-section analyses for bending with longitudinal force as well as shear force according to the principles of EC2. Additionally, you can produce crack width evidence (loading), perform stress analyses or calculate effective rigidity.

We have noticed that there is a big demand for this kind of tools, since it may be used in addition to the global analysis solution (Scia Engineer) for rapid detailed checks.

Because of this interest, we kindly invite you to a free webinar of the Frilo module for reinforced concrete sections on Thursday, September 15, 2011 . During this webinar you can ask all your questions.

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