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Report of the workshop on Extreme Ground Motions at Yucca Mountain, August 23-25, 2004

December 3, 2006

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.

Publication Year 2006
Title Report of the workshop on Extreme Ground Motions at Yucca Mountain, August 23-25, 2004
DOI 10.3133/ofr20061277
Authors T. C. Hanks, N. A. Abrahamson, M. Board, D. M. Boore, J.N. Brune, C.A. Cornell
Publication Type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Series Title Open-File Report
Series Number 2006-1277
Index ID ofr20061277
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Earthquake Hazards Program; Earthquake Science Center; Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
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