Frazer-Nash Consultancy is proud to be playing a leading role in SIGMA3: an international research and development programme which is helping to improve seismic hazard assessments and understand earthquake ground motions for nuclear sites around the world.
Nuclear facilities are purposely designed so that earthquakes will not jeopardise their safety. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provides guidance and recommendations for evaluating seismic hazards and taking a safety by design approach to designing nuclear installations and power plants. The IAEA recommends probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) as a key component for assessing and managing risk. PSHA is widely accepted across the nuclear industry.
SIGMA3 is a four-year research and development project which sets out to improve data and develop improved methods for site-specific PSHA, where seismic hazard is assessed for the characteristics of an individual site.
The project, which builds on the successes of two past SIGMA programmes, is funded by a consortium of global organisations involved in the nuclear energy sector: EDF, CEA, PG&E, swissnuclear, CEZ, VTT, Uniper, Stuk, Vattenfall and CRIEPI. It brings together 16 renowned nuclear sector experts drawn from academia, public and private sector organisations around the world in a prestigious Scientific Committee.
We are a member of the Scientific Committee which oversees five key research work packages considering: seismic sources, ground-motion and empirical site response, soil dynamics and non-linear site response, hazard calculation and verification for earthquake engineering, and the creation of a virtual platform for simulating seismicity and ground-motion data.
The programme will run until 2028, by which time, the expected outcomes are to go beyond the progress made in SIGMA and SIGMA2 by further reducing epistemic uncertainties within PSHAs, through improving the inputs and outputs from PSHAs, and enhancing the international consensus on best practice regarding site-specific PSHAs.
Dr John Douglas, a Managing Consultant at Frazer-Nash, who represents the company on the SIGMA3 Scientific Committee, explained the importance of the programme: “SIGMA3 is a globally significant, multi-million pound programme that is going to improve how the nuclear sector understands, assesses and mitigates seismic risks at facilities all around the world.”
“I am honoured to continue my participation with the SIGMA programme: I sat on the Scientific Committee for SIGMA1 and was invited to chair the Scientific Committee for SIGMA2, so I feel that I am bringing continuity and over a decade of perspective and insight through my involvement on the Committee for SIGMA3.”
“With one of the largest and most expert technical teams in the UK Frazer-Nash has been delivering value to clients in the nuclear industry for over thirty years: creating successful outcomes across the entire nuclear life cycle. We combine our extensive nuclear know-how and best practice, with knowledge and experience from other safety critical sectors – including energy, transport, industry and defence – to meet the complex challenges of the nuclear industry. So, we are proud to be actively furthering research and providing our expertise to this essential programme which will ultimately improve the safety and operational efficiency of nuclear installations around the world.”
