American Physical Society Leo Szilard Award Lecture: Why we have confidence that the design of nuclear power plants against earthquakes is adequate

SPEAKER: Robert J. Budnitz

Staff Scientist (retired), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

DATE/TIME: MON, 10/14/2024 – 3:00PM TO 4:00PM LOCATION: 3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Abstract:

Concerning seismic safety, the nuclear-engineering community has confidence that, if a large nuclear power plant (NPP) is designed and operated using approaches that have been recognized internationally as acceptable, then the NPP will be able to withstand large earthquakes safely. This presentation will explain why this confidence exists. It will explain how the design process, followed up by appropriate construction, operation, and maintenance, accomplishes two objectives: the design not only must be adequately safe but it must be transparently so when reviewed by an outside expert or a government regulatory agency. The emphasis of the presentation will be to explain how the design- construction-operation-regulation system, with many aspects working in a coordinated way, accomplishes these objectives. The success of this complex system depends on both excellence in science and engineering and excellence in the administrative, personnel, inspection, and regulation aspects.

Bio:

Robert J. Budnitz has mainly been involved with nuclear-reactor safety and radioactive- waste safety, with one emphasis being on seismic safety. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, he remains active after having retired in 2017 from the Univ. of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Prior to 2002, he had a consulting practice in Berkeley CA for over 20 years. In 1978-1980, he was at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as Deputy Director and then Director of the NRC Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. He was also the technical coordinator of the NRC’s special inquiry into the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. B.A. (Yale, 1961) and Ph.D. (Harvard, 1968).