Resilience of Masonry Systems in Nuclear Power Plants Under Blast Risk

The resilience of the built environment to high explosives poses a significant challenge to the professionals tasked with the design of blast resistant facilities. Current standards — including the ASCE 59-11 and CSA S850-12 — fail to address this challenge in design provisions targeting a single parameter of structural performance, while neglecting other key indicators of performance recovery that define the very concept of resilience. In order to investigate their significance in the design process, two resilience parameters known as robustness and rapidity are evaluated for an archetype blast scenario — a nuclear power plant (NPP) featuring reinforced concrete block masonry walls exposed to a blast hazard, namely, the detonation of an explosive charge within an open (outdoor) area of the industrial complex. The adopted methodology integrates resilience–based analysis and probabilistic risk assessment, in order to account for the uncertainties associated with threat (attack likelihood); hazard (attacker’s success likelihood); load input variables — including location, mass, and type of explosive; resistance variables — including material properties and wall geometry; and loss variables — including the costs of repair and replacement. Based on the current analysis, recommendations are made to incorporate resilience metrics in standards for blast protection, so as to foster more resilient industrial facilities.

Resilience of Masonry Systems in Nuclear Power Plants Under Blast Risk Conferences