Design of containment structures in Czechoslovakia

The paper briefly describes the development of building structures for nuclear engineering in Czechoslovakia. The main part of the paper deals with the problems of the design of the first Czechoslovak containment structure for a 1000 MW nuclear power plant whose construction is to begin in 1985. The design considers a simple full-pressure prestressed concrete containment structure with a hermetic interior steel lining anchored into the walls. The structure is prestressed by means of 10 MN orthogonal tendons. The horizontal tendons are anchored into three pilasters, the vertical ones being continuous across the dome and anchored in the ring beam of same. With regard to the requirement that the design be based on the standards valid in the CMEA countries and in Czechoslovakia for the limit stated design of concrete structures it was necessary to prepare instructions which are somewhat different from international recommendations and from the ACI 357-77 standard. The paper informs about the main principles of these Czechoslovak instructions for the design of containment structures of nuclear reactors which are in the process of preparation. (orig.)