Seismic response analysis of nuclear power plant founded on sliding elastomer bearing pads

Introduction of base isolation concept to the seismic design of nuclear power plant (NPP) has recently been expected in Japan as an effective measure to reduce drastically the seismic force for both buildings and equipement and piping. An analytical study on earthquake response of a French type base isolation system for NPP is carried out as a joint study between Kajima Corporation of Japan and Électricité de France (EDF) and Spie Batignolles (SB) of France. The purpose of this study is to grasp the seismic behavior of a base-isolated NPP using the sliding elastomer bearing pads (hereafter referred to as “aseismic bearings”) which were developed and actually applied to Koeberg NPP in South Africa by EDF and SB ( Jolivet & Richli 1977 , et al.), and to evaluate the feasibility of application of the base isloation system in Japan.