Southwestern U.S. (SWUS) Ground Motion Characterization (GMC) SSHAC Workshop #1

March 19 - 21, 2013

Oakland, CA

Pursuant to the Request for Information put forth on March 12, 2012 by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S.NRC, 2012a) in response to the Near-Term Task Force’s (NTTF) evaluation of the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident, all operating nuclear power plants in the United States are required to perform a SSHAC Level 3 study to complete a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis. In order to fulfill this request, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and Arizona Public Service (APS) are co-sponsoring a joint Southwestern U.S. (SWUS) Ground Motion Characterization (GMC) SSHAC Level 3 study for the Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP), the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), and the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (PVNGS).

The SWUS MC SSHAC Level 3 study will be conducted in accordance with the applicable guidelines: U.S.NRC (NUREG/CR-6372, 1997) and U.S.NRC (NUREG-2117, 2012b). As outlined in these guidelines, the primary purpose behind Workshop 1 is to identify hazard- significant issues and available data that will be addressed during the course of the SWUS GMC SSHAC Level 3 study. The goals of a SSHAC Level 3 Workshop 1 are discussed beginning on page 68 of NUREG-2117. Accordingly, we will not be discussing nor defending ground motion models (this is reserved for the later workshops); instead, we will review our assessment of the main ground motion and uncertainty contributors to the ground motion shaking hazard at the three sites of interest and discuss the availability, applications, and limitations of the available data. We will also discuss the new data collection efforts currently underway and those that will be completed throughout the next two years to support this SSHAC project.

For more information, contact: Carola Di Alessandro