A STUDY ON GEOLOGY AND SEISMOLOGY IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

摘要

With the development of modern science and technology, nuclear power as a kind of new energy which is clean, economical and safe, has been widely recognized and utilized as a symbol of peace and science. In China, the Guangdong Dayawan nuclear power plant (NPP) and the Qinshan were completed and thrown into commercial operation. This shows that NPP construction in China has taken its first strategic step and has been making further advances. Construction of the second and the third Guangdong NPP and the work of the second phase of the Qinshan NPP are under vigorous planning and preparing. However, NPP after all is a nuclear installation, if an accident occurred, it might cause a great amount of radioactive materials to be released and then contaminate the surroundings. Therefore, site selection, construction and security evaluation of NPP are all high-tech problems. When site selection is carried out, safety should be considered as the first factor. The effect of environment on NPP should be sufficiently analyzed and investigated and the effect of NPP to environment should also be considered. Generally speaking, major considerations for determining the site of a NPP are as follows: feasibility in technology; up-to-standard in safety, and rationality in economy. In consideration of nuclear safety, the main purpose of NPP siting is to protect the public and environment from being affected by excessive range of radioactivity released in a radioactive accident, and the normal radioactive release of a NPP should also be considered. In view of geology and seismology, the evaluation of the safety related to the selection of plan sites involves surface rupture, seismic activity, suitability of underground rock-soil strata, volcanos, landslide and subsidence of ground, etc. All these natural characteristics of the site are related with the permanent ground deformation. These problems cannot be effectively dealt with through contemporary engineering measures. Improper selection of plan sites will certainly cause great economic losses. Therefore, geological and seismological methods are very important for the work of plant site selection and closely related to the construction of nuclear plants.