ML19347E380

Forwards USGS 801022 & Univ of Tx s Re Show Cause Proceeding.Reclassification of Verona Fault,Discussed in Ltrs,Does Not Alter NRC Position Re Seismic Design Bases for Facility

ML19347E380
Person / Time
Site:	Vallecitos File:GEH Hitachi icon.png
Issue date:	04/10/1981
From:	Nelson C Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:	Darmitzel R GENERAL ELECTRIC CO.
References
NUDOCS 8104270194
Download: ML19347E380 (13)

Text

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UNITED STATES

[ '$. q h NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D. C. 20555 s?m

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April 10, 1981 m

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Docket No. 50-70 J[p s

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R Mr. R. W. Darmitzel, Manager Irradiation Processing Product Section s

Vallecitos Nuclear Center (p

N General Electric Company P. O. Box 460 Pleasanton, California 94566

Dear Mr. Darmitzel:

The attached letters: October 22, 1980 Ellsworth (USGS) to Maxwell (ACRS Consultant) and December 3,1980 (unsigned response) directly relate to the GETR Show Cause Proceeding and are provided for your information and the public record. The Ellsworth classification, with respect to activity, of the Verona fault is discussed on page 9, Section / a# our May 23, 1980 safety evaluation. The reclassifi-cation fro:

obably" active to "possibly" active, as discussed in the attacht ;

, does not alter our conclusions regarding the proper seismic des sases for the GETR.

Sincerely, J

M Chris Nelson, Project Manager l

Operating Reactors Branch #3 Division of Licensing Attachments:

As stated cc: See next page 8104270lNi

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General Electric Company cc:

California Department of Health Dr. Harry Foreman, ATTN: Chief, Environmental Radiation Administrative Judge Control Unit Atomic Safety and Licensing Radiologic Health Section Box 295, Mayo 714 P Street, Room 498 University of Minnesota Sacramento, California 95184 Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 Ms. Barbara Shockley Honorable Ronald V. Dellums 1890 Bockman Road ATTN:

H. Lee Halterman San Lorenzo, California 94580 201 13th Street Room 105 Oakland, California 94617 Advisory Conmittee on Reactor Safeguards U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissime Friends of the Earth Washington, D. C.

20555 ATTN:

Glenn W. Cady Law Offices of Carniato & Dodge 3708 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Suite 300 Prof. William J. Hall Lafayette, California 94549 1245 Civil Engineering Building University of Illinois Urbana, Illinois 61801 Jed Somit, Esquire 100 Bush Street Suite 304 San Francisco, California 94104 Herbert Grossman, Esauire, Chairman Administrative Judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D. C.

20555 Dr. George A. Ferguson Administraive Judge School of Engineering Howard University 2300 6th Street N. W.

Washington, D. C.

20059 George Edgar, Esquire Morgan, Lewis & Bockius 1800 M Street, N. W.

Washington, D. C.

20036

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UNITED STATES N

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR O

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I G EOLOGIC AL SU RVEY g

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345 Middlefield Road - MS-77 Menlo Park, California 94025

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5 22, 1980 R 2 C T '.\\! Z D October f~-;

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-r Professor John C. Maxwell N,N_.m.

i Department of Geology 1 ;"3 g'd.".

0, University of Texas

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Austin, Texas

Dear Professor Maxwell,

I am sorry to have let your request for the enclosed material remain I

unanswered for so long, and hope that it will still be of some use to Since the ACRS meeting in Sunal I have undertaken the systematic L

review of all available focal mechanism data in the Livermore Valley you.

The conclusions of that study are in good agreement with For example, g.'

study region.

tne more preliminary results given in Ellsworth and Marks.

we find that earthquakes in the general region around Vallecitos Valley to be characterized by oblique-slip to pure thrust focal mechanisms.

One difference that should be noted, and which has some impact on my earlier evaluation of the Verona fault comes from our re-interpretation I

of the original seismograms for events 6 and IT in the attached sheets.

I We now find that either strike slip or thrust fault plane solutions fit This weakens the case for the identification of the the observations.

Verona as a "probably" active fault on the basis of seismological evi-s However, the evidence is still permissive and other focal dence.

I would now classify the mechanisms indicate compressive tectonics.

Verona fault as "possibly" active, based on the microearthquakes and r.-

In view of the fact that K'"

criteria defined in Open-File report 80-515.

i the same criteria and data set classified the Greenville fault as possibly

(.h' active prior to the January 1980 earthquakes, I find little comfort in the revised classification for the Verona fault.

Very truly yours, f

William L. Ellsworth Geophysicist

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GK hi THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN ACSr!N, rEXAS 78722 Department of GeologdalSciences Decenber 3, 29r,o Mr. 'ii.Llien I..

E11r,vorth, Geophysicists U.S. Geolonica1 <urvev 345 Middlefiel.1 Road - MS-77 Minlow Park, California 94025

Dear Bill:

I appreciate very tiuch you t.@ f n:: tbo time and effort to bring me The work certainly up to date on your work in the Vallecitos Re:tdon.

the 1,.anina) area is beine, deformed be-supportu the interpret.itton th.'t trandn. The northerly trending tucen the Cnlaveras.md Greenvill. Pault conpressaion (thrust right-lateral faul. ting and nors ' on-t-sourhvost-This foultin';) ectin? on this..rea are c.'. ar1v picturcel by your data.

is certainly not the apot char ona vould nicP. to locate a large-scale nucicar facility!

In reviewine, the necdoniell and soint.ic evidence availabic at the tiste of our SU OI. ecotito it scened to me that the major seismic danger The definitely lay vith tue Calavaran Sault to the vest of the C1!IP..

$njur threat posed by a Verona Fault is that n inre,e displacement (2-3 feet) might occur beneath and intersecting the. base of the CEIR reactor.

4 I

Considering the thicknesa of sedinents overlying basement rocks down dip to the northeast from the reactor site, this would seem to require a well-organized thrust fault surfacing directiv beneath the reacetir.

The data now availchic on this point -- mainly the general Inch of f'

agreement among vorkers an to the precise location of the Verona Fault, l

the trenching in the recccer area, and the mi c of strike slip and thrust the area nhown faulting at various, perhaps random, depths c,roughou:

on your figure 3 - suce,cet a response to the regional north-soutb com-i pression by sbcaring on widely disperced planes, rather than 'rell-organ-The possibility that a major thrust would develop be-ized thrusting.

neath the reaccer, breahing through uncheared ground, seems to me'to be exceedingly rc=ote, and I therefore continue to helleve that the overri

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riding sciamic danger viich cuot be considered is that relating to the i

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Calaveras Fault, If you have not already done so, I hope you will send copies of your i

coismic analyaic to Ben Page and Coorge Thompson.

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Cordially yours, j

i Ec John C. !!axwell

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