The ITER Safety Approach for External Events

Abstract

ITER will be the first large-scale tokamak to be designed as a nuclear facility to provide public protection from external hazards such as earthquakes. The design approach for such events has been developed consistent with ITER's moderate hazards and overall safety approach on a basis of the ITER site assumptions. Seismic design is described including selection of ground motions for design purposes, seismic safety requirements, and the seismic classification scheme. The results of preliminary seismic assessments are summarized including the potential for seismically induced plasma vertical displacement events (VDE). Finally, potential facility modifications available to deal with site-specific external hazards are suggested. At the Detailed Design Report stage of the Engineering Design Activity (EDA), it is concluded that ITER has been designed to deal with the site design assumptions for earthquakes and can be designed to safety cope with a range of site-specific external hazards with modest changes to the facility.