Seismic requirements are an essential part of nuclear facilities, not only for the design of the buildings and the infrastructure themselves, but also for the diversity of specific and usually heavy equipment they house. Understanding these requirements and to what extent they may affect the design of systems, structures and components in a nuclear facility is key for an efficient and cost-effective design and licensing process.

Seismic aspects are many times seen as a complex subject because designers are not normally used to deal with them, but in many cases things are relatively easy since seismic loads seldom drive the design for low mass systems. In other cases, especially for big and heavy components and structures, meeting seismic requirements may be challenging and addressing them properly requires a significant level of expertise. Esteyco Mechanics has been intensively involved in the seismic design and analysis of many of the most complex ITER systems, including the 23,000 tonne Tokamak machine. In the ITER context, Esteyco Mechanics has been actually in charge of developing the official SL-2 floor response spectra for the reactor building, the Tokamak Complex. We have also supported the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) in the structural review of the main building of the Centralized Temporary Storage Facility (ATC), for which seismic loads were one of the main design drivers, and are currently working on the seismic design of IFMIF-DONES.