ML20235Y734

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Forwards Site Advisory Committee Rept to Udall Re Facility Site.Const & Development of Site for Nuclear Power & Desalting Plant Feasible
ML20235Y734
Person / Time
Site: 05000000, 05000307, 05000308
Issue date: 10/16/1967
From: Shaw M
US ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (AEC)
To: Price H
US ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (AEC)
Shared Package
ML20235X376 List: ... further results
References
FOIA-87-462 3433, NUDOCS 8710200467
Download: ML20235Y734 (4)
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\\l UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT Memorandum To Harold L. Price, Director of Regulation parg:0CT I 6 1967 FRoM Milton Shaw, Director, Division o Reactor Development & Technology SUBJEcr:

TRANSMITTAL OF SITE ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT RDT:PM:D258 In accordance with our agreement, I am providing herewith 25 copies of the report of the Advisory Committee to Secretary Udall relating to the Bolsa Island site.

Interior l

Assistant Secretary Di Luzio has agreed with this early supply of the reports to your staff and the ACRS; however, since the Commission has not yet formally received the report it is approp'riate that the reports be handled as

" Official Use Only until any formal release of the reports by the Department of the Interior.

Attachment:

l Advisory Committee report (25) i C\\/

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DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94720 October 2, 1967 I

a Secretary Stewart L. Udall j

U. S. Department of the Interior Washington, D. C.

1

Dear Secretary Udall:

The Advisory Cont 4ttee on Geological-Seismological Conditions Pertaining to the Siting of Nuclear Power-Desalting Plants which j

you established' in May 1966 has completed its assigned task, the ll review of the geological-seismological factors associated with the construction of a nuclear power and desalting plant on an island proposed to be constructed about one half mile off-shore of Bolsa Chica State Beach, seven miles southeast of Long Beach, California.

j You asked that the Cenmittae. evafuate the severity of any problems j

disclosed by this review, recommend geo-seismic criteria to be met if the site were to be utilized with appropriate regard for public l

safety, determine the adequacy of existing engineering techniques i

to meet the recommended criteria and, offer an opinion concerning the suitability of the site based on the current state of knowledge and tachnology.

i I am transmitting heecwith a report prepared by the Committee j

presenting th results of our ren'ew and evaluation.

j 1

The Bolsa Island site is cae mile from the Newport-Inglewood j

f ault and no branch f aults he e been found to exist beneath the i

site.

The materials beneatli t.ne island are much more compact than i

they were thought to be earlier, so that settlement due to compac-tion from earthquake vibrMions or weight of the man-made island i

should be extremely small.

The ocean floor is smooth with gentle westward slopes.

There are no channels or other steep sided features that would lead to slope failures with vibrations and, l

with the exception of loose sediments near the ocean floor, there j

are no potentially liquefiable materials underlying the site.

1 The Committee considers it credible, though extremely unlikely, i

that a great earthquake may occur, accompanied by lateral or vertical i

displacements, along the Newport-Inglewood fault during the life of the plant.

If displacements do occur however, they can be expected i

to follow the existing surface break and not develop new parallel faults on either side of the existing fault zone.

In our best j

judgmer.t there will be no fault displacement of the ocean floor j

beneath the island site during the life of the plant, but it is also j

(

a.

Stewart L. Udall 3

October 2, 1967 l

Page 2 4

i recognized that the marine environment of the site precludes the l

possibility of exploring the site by conventional methods to j

positively rule out the existence of minor faults in the site area.

j In recognition of the above factors and others discussed in the report, the principal recommendations of the Committee are:

(

Engineered safety features of the nuclear reactor and related critical structures needed to achieve and maintain a safe shutdown condition of the nuclear reactor should be designed to survive a sudden differential dis-placement of 5 to 10 inches in any direction in the sea floor and ground shaking from a magnitude 8 earthquake on l

the Newport-Inglewood fault; in addition, the plant should l

l be designed so that it can safely withstand the ground j

shaking induced by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake on the 1

l San Andreas fault.

In this connection I might note that the l

Committee considered the possibility of differential displace-I ments of the sea floor in the immediate vicinity of the island to be so remote that it would not need to be considered in the design of any structure other than a nuclear reactor.

l Furthermore, in the event that trench excavations in the l

foundation area of the reactor should establish that there i

are no fault displacements in the upper 10 feet or so of the firm deposits, it might be possible to reduce the recommended fault displacement criteria to some extent.

i Seismic shaking, to which the island area will almost' I

certainly be subjected one or more times during the life f

l of the plant is not expected to cause any significant settle-j l

ment of the underlying foundation soils.

However the design of the island and of the reactor should take into account the probability of a general areal subsidence of about j

l 2.5 ft due to regional tectonic causes and withdrawal of i

fluids during the next 40 years.

l i

l l

Cateful consideration should be given to the character I

of the island fill, its density, its supporting capacity and i

its ability to remain stable under the design ground motions.

i The fill should be mechanically compacted to a sufficiently i

high density to assure stability, or the stability of the island and plant must be assured by a combination of mechani-cal compaction of the fill in critica? zones and the provision i

of stable walls or dikes to retain tl.e fill.

Appropriate precautions should be taken to protect the i

installations against the effects of a tsunami generated j

either at a distance or by a magnitude 8 earthquake along j

one of the major submarine faults in the off-shore area.

1 l

Based on the belief that these and other recommendations set forth in the report can be met by means of appropriate design and I

i

,.a.

Stewart L. Udall October 2, 1967 Page 3 i

construction procedures, the Committee concludes that it is entirely feasible to construct and develop-the Bolsa Island site for a nuclear power and desalting plant with due regard for geologic-seismologic factors without jeopardizing public safety.

Extensive information was available to the Committee for its evaluations.

The bulk of this information was that accumulated by the Bechtel Corporation, its contractors and consultants in the course l

of a comprehensive investigation of the site area.

This investigation was conducted concurrently with the Committee's activities; the in-formation developed was made available to the Committee for independent J

appraisal and several studies were undertaken by Bechtel at the Committee's request.

i The Committee considers that this geologic investigation of the site itself, and its place in the regional geologic-tectonic framework, has been thoroughly and competently performed.

No major sources of information have been overlooked or ignored.

Various techniques of-investigation have been considered, and the applicable ones used by competent' people.

All data have been subjected to more than one completely independent analysis and evaluation, in addition to evaluations made by this Committee.

Although further detailed in-formation on the site or its environment might conceivably be developed from additional investigations, 'the Committee believes that while the. information obtained thereby might improve our know-ledge concerning the local details of the site area, it would not change the total picture appreciably or modify the Committee's con-clusions to any significant degree.

In addition to the considerable volume of information obtained from the Bechtel Corporation, the Committee also reviewed the pertinent literature and obtained much helpful advice from colleagues and' specialist advisors.

The conclusions presented in the report thus represent the best judgment of the Committee supported by ' facts and data interpretations provided by a large number of specialists in various aspects of the problems involved.

The Committee would be glad to meet with you or others if you~ desire to. discuss its evalua-tions and recommendations.

I am confident I speak for all the Committee members when I say it has been a pleasure to serve on 'the Committee. 'The Committee undertook this assignment with due regard for the importance of its advice and recommendations, and I personally feel that the evaluation of the geologic-seismologic and soil factors of the Bolsa Island site and the adequacy of existing design techniques to meet the recommended a

criteria were most thoroughly and carefully considered.

Sincerely yours, N

ton Seed HBS/nh

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