Publication Citation

USGS Series Open-File Report
Report Number 2006-1277
Title Report of the Workshop on Extreme Ground Motions at Yucca Mountain, August 23-25, 2004
Edition Version 1.0
Language ENGLISH
Author(s) Hanks, T. C.; Abrahamson, N. A.; Board, M.; Boore, D. M.; Brune, J. N.; Cornell, C. A.
Year 2006
Originating office Earthquake Hazards Program
USGS Library Call Number
Physical description 234 p.
ISBN
Northernmost latitude 0370000
Southernmost latitude 0363000
Easternmost longitude -116.2
Westernmost longitude -116.7

Online Document Versions

Currently not available through the USGS Store

Abstract

This Workshop has its origins in the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) for Yucca Mountain, the designated site of the underground repository for the nation's high-level radioactive waste. In 1998 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Senior Seismic Hazard Analysis Committee (SSHAC) developed guidelines for PSHA which were published as NUREG/CR-6372, 'Recommendations for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis: guidance on uncertainty and the use of experts,' (SSHAC, 1997). This Level-4 study was the most complicated and complex PSHA ever undertaken at the time. The procedures, methods, and results of this PSHA are described in Stepp et al. (2001), mostly in the context of a probability of exceedance (hazard) of 10-4/yr for ground motion at Site A, a hypothetical, reference rock outcrop site at the elevation of the proposed emplacement drifts within the mountain. Analysis and inclusion of both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty were significant and time-consuming aspects of the study, which took place over three years and involved several dozen scientists, engineers, and analysts.