Abstract
Bernreuter and others (1989) published 50th, 85th, and 15th percentile (median and one standard deviation above and below the mean, respectively) seismic hazard curves for 69 nuclear plants sited on rock and soil in eastern United States. This paper compares Bernreuter's curves for a subset of 38 nuclear plants sited on rock with seismic hazard curves derived from data provided by the 1988 Uniform Building Code (International Conference of Building Officials,1988), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (1988), and the Applied Technology Council (1978) in order to assess the degree of conservatism represented by the Uniform Building Code (UBC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Applied Technology Council (ATC) data. Without exception seismic hazard curves based on data provided by the 1988 UBC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (1988) are more conservative than the 50th percentile seismic hazard curves of Bernreuter and others (1989). The seismic hazard curves derived from the 1988 UBC are, on average, approximately midway between Bernreuter's 50th percentile and 85th percentile seismic hazard curves and are somewhat more conservative than those based on Applied Technology Council (1978) guidelines. The 1988 UBC guidelines with respect to seismic design appear to be sufficiently, but not overly, conservative when compared with Bernreuter's seismic hazard curves.
