Concrete Codes and Standards

for Nuclear Power Plants (CTG)

Chiara Ferraris, NISTChairperson

CTGConcrete Codes and Standards for NPP • Created December 2009• Meetings:

– Monthly conference calls– in person (March 23, 2010) at the ACI

convention in Chicago• Final Draft report on NESCC

website: – 6 ballots to finalize the report– Request specific comments from NESCC

Membership - reviewers• 37 members from : ACI, AISC, Amec,

AmerenUE Callaway Nuclear Plant, AREVA, ASME, ASTM, BASF, Bechtel Power, Carrasquillo Associates, Commision Nacional de Seguridad Nuclear, DOE, Dominion Virginia Power, Duke Energy, EPRI, Exelon, FMC Lithium Division, ICA Fluor, INL, J.D. Stevenson, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NCMA, NFPA, NIST, Purdue Univ., Sargent & Lundy, Savannah River Remediation, Southern Company, Unistar, University of Kansas, US-NRC, Westinghouse

• 34 reviewers from industry, government and SDOs

Scope

• Establish coordination and consistency of safety and non-safety related concrete requirements

• Identify new design requirements for safety related concrete components, and develop a plan to incorporate these new requirements into codes and standards.

• Identify and review all U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Regulatory documents related to concrete for nuclear power plant

Objectives • Objective 1: Review NRC documents

– Documents considered: Mattson report, NRC NUREG CR 5973, and NRC-regulatory documents

– Detailed analysis of the gaps in the concrete standards, specification, and codes for all SDO’s.

• Objective 2: Categorize and Identify– Discussion of codes and standards– A list of issues and recommendations

• Objective 3-4: Identify research needs– list of potential areas where research might

improve or facilitate the construction

Report Table of content

1. Introduction2. Objectives overview3. Discussion of Standards

Developing Organizations (SDO) and relevant documents

4. Issues unrelated to SDOs5. Research Needs6. Summary

Goal 2-3: SDO examined• ACI – Amer. Concrete Institute

• AISC – Amer. Inst. of Steel Construction

• ASME – Amer. Soc. of Mechanical Engineers

• ANSI – Amer. National Standards Institute

• ASCE - American Society of Civil Engineers

• EPRI - Electric Power Research Institute• NEI - Nuclear Energy Institute

• NFPA - National Fire Protection Association• Foreign standards and code – attempt

SDOs Related issues• Recommendation to revise not recently

(more than 10 yrs) updated documents• List of items that should be addressed

in otherwise updated documents. – Each recommendation was structured:

• Title• a) Status today• b) What needs to be changed for application to

a nuclear power plant?• c) Why does it need to be changed? Provide a

reference or example

Main issues uncovered

• ACI:– Specific recommendations for 318, 349

& 359– Update some related ACI documents,

i.e., related to Heavyweight concrete– Nuclear inspector certification program

• AISC/ACI: modular construction• Coordination of ACI/ASME

Coordination DOE, NRC, SDOs

• NRC and DOE need to review any new version of SDOs documents before they are accepted for use in NPP

• Expedite NRC and DOE review of the most used codes and standards

• Resolve construction requirements in conflict with NRC current technical requirements.

• Better procedure for NRC to adopt SDOs documents

Goal 2-3:Issues unrelated to SDOs

4.1 Materials4.2. Implement new, mature

technologies4.3. Foreign standards and Codes

Materials• Material selection for concrete

mixture designs needs: – to ensure conformity to current standards

and codes – sufficient material supply is locally

available– commercially available concrete batch

mix materials, with adequate records – enable assured concrete service life for

over 60 – 75 years.

Issues to be considered

• Supplementary cementitious material (SCM) usage should be encouraged

• Aggregate sources need to be tested, e.g. ASR

• High density aggregates characterization

• Cement characterization, i.e. SCM interaction

Implement mature technologies

• Self consolidating concrete (SCC). There are no references to SCC in any of the NRC documents.

• Procedure for introduction of new technology in the nuclear construction.

• Performance based design of concrete

• Foreign codes and standards adoption

Goal 4: Research needs

5.1. High Strength reinforcing steel5.2. Concrete Radiation Shielding5.3. Durability of concrete5.4. Performance based design5.5 Ultra-high Performance Concrete (UHPC)5.6 Use of lapped Splices in regions of low

bixial tension5.7 Temperature loading concrete

Summary

• Main issues– Improve process for NRC, DOE to adopt

new technology and standards– Long list of research need: how can they

be addressed?

What next?

• March 2011: receive comments from all NESCC members

• April 2011: publication of the report

• Dissemination of findings to SDOs, NRC, DOE– Presentation done by Ferraris at ACI Fall 2010 convention

to TTAG and ACI 349– Publication of report– Suggestion for other presentations?

• Note the TG would be dissolved upon publication of the report

Questions for you

• How to help NRC streamline the adoption of revised/new standards and codes?

• How can international standards be adopted by SDOs or NRC?

• How to address research needs? Who and funding?

• How to use this report?