Existing Structural Studies cont'd

DOE-HDBK-3010-94

Appendix B; Plutonium Recovery Facility

g-Level

Probable Damage

0.26

Gloveboxes may begin to sag. Spalling of external walls

possible. From 5% to 10% of the plutonium process tanks in

first story tank farm fail.

0.30

Building wide failure of tanks other than plutonium process

tanks. All gloveboxes sag, and 10% to 20% of the plutonium

process tanks fail. Possible large cracking of internal non-shear

concrete walls. It is expected that the building shell will remain

intact.

The statement that the building shell will remain intact is stated to be an "expectation" as

opposed to a "conclusion" in the Brown and Associates study because of concerns that the tie

spacing in columns might be too large. Even with this concern, the majority of the columns

in the building were judged adequate. However, column A-17, the support unit located at

the L-shaped hinge on the north face of the building, was considered a potential problem.

The irregular shape of the PRF structure allows a significant moment to develop at this

location and it was considered unlikely but possible for column A-17 to exhibit brittle shear

failure. If such a failure occurred, Brown and Associates estimated dominoing failures could

lead to partial collapse of the building around the cafeteria, "clean" office space, and the feed

preparation, dissolving, and sampling gloveboxes. At this point, the moment characteristics

of the new building shape would be considered survivable for the remainder of the structure.

A project to provide additional support for column A-17 was developed as a result of this

study, but the estimated funding has not been made available.

Based on column and beam locations, this partial collapse case would be expected to include

the following process equipment in the collapse zone: (1) the vessel vent scrubber, knock-

out tank, and blowdown tank; (2) the impactor, weighing and batching, and furnace stations

of the feed preparation glovebox; (3) the metal dissolving glovebox; (4) the back-end half of

the residue dissolving glovebox; and (5) the sample glovebox. Outside the partial collapse

zone, the base conclusions of the study would remain valid (i.e., gloveboxes would remain

upright, but limited sagging could occur, glovebox piping and electric connections could

fail).

Page B-13