Review of revised Japanese seismic guidelines for NPP design

From new knowledge in recently aseismic design studies, some of the conventional design methods we understood to be conservative, and review for guideline of private sector and preparation for by-laws of administrative office thereby have been promoted since 1984. This paper presents the state-of-arts and trends of current aseismic design methods and the guideline and the by-laws thereof for Japanese NPP, including items on determination of the design basis earthquake, investigation of ground condition and seismic stability, treatment of soil-structure interaction, limitation for uplift of building basement, evaluation of non-linear characteristics and response, and provision of design basis damping. (orig.)