Aiken, SC
Savannah River Site, Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility
Scope/Solutions
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in conjunction with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, planned to eliminate stockpiles of weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium by down-blending the material to low-enriched uranium. In support of Washington Group International’s structural design, SGH performed seismic soil-structure interaction (SSI) studies of the new pit disassembly and conversion facility.
The facility consists of large and closely spaced reinforced concrete buildings connected by buried tunnels. Certain buildings are buried or covered by berms, while others are above grade with uneven soil support. The facility is founded on deep soil layers with rock deeper than 800 ft. With these conditions, the seismic SSI analysis became an important requirement for the structural design process. Highlights of SGH’s work on the project include the following:
- Performed seismic SSI analyses of five new Performance Category 3 (PC-3) buildings and tunnels, consisting of four reinforced concrete structures and one concrete and steel structure
- Performed seismic structure-soil-structure interaction analysis of closely spaced structures
- Performed analyses using SASSI, verified in accordance with SGH’s Quality Assurance program for nuclear facilities
- Developed post-processor for SASSI to calculate deformed shape-time histories during the seismic event
- Presented the SSI methodology and analysis results to the DOE and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
Project Summary
2005
Award
Key team members
