Seismic Hazard Assessment for Hinkley C
Who's involved?
Dr John Douglas, University of Strathclyde, CH2M Hill, a global engineering company, and NNB GenCo, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EDF Energy.
Why the approach?
EDF Energy is developing proposals to construct a twin UK EPR nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, Somerset, which, when constructed, will be the UK’s first new-build nuclear power station since the mid-90s.
In order to meet UK regulatory requirements and to provide long term support to the safety case, NNB GenCo required a Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) to be undertaken for the Hinkley Point scheme.
CH2M Hill International Nuclear Services were appointed in March 2014 to carry out the PSHA. Through the University of Strathclyde, CH2M Hill engaged Dr John Douglas on a consultancy basis to assist with various delivery aspects of the PSHA study.
How we helped
Dr John Douglas from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering worked closely with the team at CH2M Hill throughout the planning and implementation of the PSHA, providing specialist technical advice and reviewing documentation.
Successful outcomes
All the necessary technical reviews were completed on time prior to submission of the complete PSHA documentation to the Office for Nuclear Regulation in spring 2016. The ONR has subsequently confirmed its acceptance of the study, which will now help underpin the seismic design basis for the proposed scheme.
The work also led to the publication of two journal articles in the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering (February 2018) on both the approach and the details & results.
Feedback
Dr Iain Tromans, Technical Delivery Team Lead, said:
Dr Douglas’s involvement in the project has helped the team to implement the latest techniques in PSHA and to do this in a robust and defensible way, contributing in a very real way to the streamlining of the regulatory approval process, much to the appreciation of our client. We look forward to future collaboration with Dr Douglas on other projects.