Seismic issues related to Indian nuclear power plants

Safety of the nuclear power plant (NPP) personnel and the environment around the plant should be ensured against all natural hazards including the earthquakes. With the public safety as the paramount concern, NPP facilities are designed to withstand low probability high magnitude earthquakes. In this paper, brief seismic design aspects of the nuclear power plant structures, equipment and piping are discussed. Details of some of the issues related to the seismic design aspects such as ground motion, piping damping, design rules for piping, passive seismic response control, re-qualification of old facilities including seismic PSA are also discussed. (author)