A study on seismic feasibility of a rationalized reactor building in a high seismicity region

The following structural features have been used in recent Japanese PWR plants in order to satisfy the design requirements of an earthquake country: large basement dimensions to meet the uplift criteria, symmetrical arrangement of shear walls to prevent torsional effects, well-proportioned building shapes and flat basemats to avoid local stresses in the structures, and basements which are thick enough to be regarded as rigid. In meeting these requirements, plant layouts which waste space and unnecessary thicknesses of walls, slabs and basemat in the building structures can not be avoided. Therefore these seismic requirements influence in cost increases. In this study, a rationalized design of a building is proposed in which priority is given to equipment performance