This document applies to civil structures of nuclear power plants with water cooled reactors in order to achieve the safety objectives given in ISO 4917-1. For other nuclear facilities the applicability of the document needs to be checked in advance, before it might be applied correspondingly.

This document specifies the requirements for civil structures for the verification of their load-bearing capacity in case of a seismic event. Additionally, requirements are specified pertaining to the verification of the serviceability of civil structures as far as necessary for maintaining their safety-related function in case of a seismic event (e.g. deformation and crack-width limitations).

This document will be applied under the presumption that the geology and tectonics of the plant site have been investigated with special emphasis on the existence of active geological faults and lasting geological ground displacements, and that the site has been deemed suitable for a nuclear installation.

To achieve these goals, this document deals with the requirements specific to the seismic design of civil structures above and beyond their conventional design. The basic requirements of these precautionary measures are dealt with in ISO 4917-1.

This document does not apply to cranes, to detachment devices for lifting equipment nor to the supporting and mounting constructions of components.

This document is independent of national standards. Recommendations, given in Annex A, are mainly based on the KTA Design-Philosophy and European standards. Alternatively other equivalent standards or regulations can be used in case the general requirements given in this document can be met.

NOTE            The term civil structures as used in this document comprise buildings and structural members made of reinforced concrete, pre-stressed concrete, steel, as well as steel composite structures and masonry. Among others, these include the containment, crane runways, platforms, fastening constructions and canals.