Design and evaluation guidelines for Department of Energy facilities subjected to natural phenomena hazards

Abstract

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the DOE Natural Phenomena Hazards Panel have developed uniform design and evaluation guidelines for protection against natural phenomena hazards at DOE sites throughout the United States (UCRL-15910). The goal of the guidelines is to assure that DOE facilities car_withstand the effects of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, extreme winds, tornadoes, and flooding. The guidelines apply to both new facilities (design) and existing facilities (evaluation, modification, and upgrading). The intended audience isprimarily the civil/structural or mechanical engineers conducting the design or evaluation of DOE facilities. DOE Order 6430. lA, General Design Criteria Manual, was revised in 1989. This current version of Order 6430. lA references these guidelines (UCRL-15910) as an acceptable approach for design evaluation of DOE facilities for the effects of natural phenomena hazards. UCRL-15910 provides earthquake ground acceleration, wind speed, tornado wind speed and other effects, and flood level corresponding to the design basis earthquake (DBE), design basis wind (DBW), design basis tornado (DBT), and design basis flood (DBFL) as described in Order 6430.1A. Integrated with these natural phenomena Ioadings, UCRL-15910 provides recommended response evaluation methods and acceptance criteria in order to achieve acceptably low probabilities of facility damage due to natural phenomena. iv recent information and techniques available, In any case, to achieve a specified perforrnance goal, hazard annual probabilities of exceedance are specified with design and evaluation procedures that provide a consistent and appropriate level of conservatism.

Feasibility study of medical isotope production at Sandia National Laboratories

“…28 (DOE, 1993) and its implementation standards (Kennedy, 1989). Therefore, the DOE-defined criteria for the site (or facility) were used (i.e., UCRL-?5910) (Kennedy, 1989).…”

“…In accordance with DOE Order 6430.1 A (Section 01 1 1 -99.0.4), the modeling techniques presented in the natural-phenomena modeling project for both seismic hazards and extreme-windhornado hazards (Coats, 1985) were used to establish the design-basis earthquake and extreme-windltomado characteristics consistent with the approach specified in Kennedy, 1989. The procedures and approaches presented in Kennedy, 1989 were used to determine the maximum horizontal and vertical ground surface accelerations at the facility, the wind speeds for design loads, and the probability of occurrence of such event loads.…”

“…As a minimum, the procedures and approaches presented in Kennedy, 1989 will be used to determine the probability of occurrence or return periods for each of the applicable naturalphenomena events affecting the facility.…”

Environmental site description for a Uranium Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation (U-AVLIS) production plant at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site

“…Several studies have estimated the probabilistic risk assessment for ground motion at the Portsmouth facility. While the results of these studies (Dames and Moore 1973;TERA Corp. 1981;Beavers 1974; and others) were found to vary, Kennedy et al (1990) endorses the seismic hazard analyses (used for setting seismic design guidelines) of TERA Corp. (1981). TERA Corp. (1981) estimates the 1000-yr return period mean value of peak ground acceleration to be 0.11 of the acceleratic_n of gravity (g).…”

Environmental assessment for Mound Plant decontamination and decommissioning projects, Mound Plant, Miamisburg, Ohio

“…Tornados may touch down along short and narrow paths, but are infrequent in the region. The tornado windspeed with an annual probability of exceedance (APE) of lo9 is 90 mph, while for an APE of 106, the limit of credible cases, it is 227 mph (Kennedy et al, 1990). Ohio is subject to damaging hailstorms, with two or three occurring each year.…”