ANS webinar gives an overview of nuclear structural engineering

The American Nuclear Society recently hosted the latest webinar in its ongoing Educator Training series. This newest installment featured Christine Roy, a structural engineer at Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, who led a presentation titled "Building Nuclear: How Structural Engineers Shape Nuclear Energy Infrastructure."

Starting off: Roy has served as a project manager for several major engineering efforts, including the structural analysis and retrofit of the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) test bed at Idaho National Laboratory. She is also the past chair of ANS's Northeastern Local Section, which represents Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

She began her presentation by tackling the basics of what a structural engineer actually does. As she explained it, the work of a structural engineer broadly focuses on designing structures and can be broken down into a simple, multistep process. First, applicable codes and standards are compiled and reviewed. Next, the various loads that the structure will experience are considered. After that, the demand (force) being experienced by each member (a load bearing component like a wall) is determined, along with the capacity (strength) of those members. With all of that data gathered, reports and design drawings are created, after which a structural engineer may play a construction oversight role in the design's implementation.

The nuclear difference: With that basic definition in mind, Roy zoomed in on the key question: What makes design of nuclear different? For one, a slew of unique standards comes into play where nuclear safety is concerned, changing the considerations for many aspects of the design process.

Using the DOME project as a case study, Roy took the audience through a variety of detailed examples reflecting the many differences between nonnuclear and nuclear construction. These included seismic considerations, soil-structure interaction analysis, time history matching, temperature, missile impact (a particularly unique aspect of nuclear design), general design considerations, and quality assurance.

Go deeper: To hear Roy's in-depth explanations of each of these topics, watch the full recording on the ANS YouTube channel, which also hosts an archive of 12 other presentations in the Educator Training series.