Improvement of the seismic safety of existing nuclear power plants by an increase of the component seismic capacity: A case study

This case study produces the scenario earthquakes for an example nuclear power plant (NPP) site and suggests the effective seismic capacity of safety-related equipment and components which significantly contribute to a core damage to improve the seismic safety of an existing NPP by using a probabilistic safety assessment. The response spectra for the scenario earthquakes show greater spectral accelerations than those for the design response spectrum in the frequency range higher than about 12 Hz. In order to improve the seismic safety of an example NPP, the effects of the seismic capacity of safety-related equipment and components on the core damage frequency (CDF) are investigated, and their effective seismic capacities are determined. The results of the case study show that an increase of the seismic capacity of the equipment reduces the CDF considerably. The effective seismic capacities for the diesel generator, offsite power, condensate storage tank and battery rack are determined as 0.84, 0.35, 0.63 and 0.63 g, respectively.