Structural/piping sensitivity studies for the USNRC Seismic Safety Margins Research Program

The Seismic Safety Margins Research Program (SSMRP) is a NRC-funded, multi-year program conducted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). One of the goals of the program is to develop a complete, fully coupled analysis procedure (including methods and computer codes) for estimating the risk of an earthquake-caused radioactive release from a commercial nuclear power plant. The analysis procedure is based upon a state-of-the-art evaluation of the current seismic analysis and design process and explicitly includes the uncertainties inherent in such a process. The results will be used to improve seismic licensing requirements for nuclear power plants. (orig./RW)