Los Alamos National Laboratory sits on top of a once-remote mesa in northern New Mexico with the Jemez mountains as a backdrop to research and innovation covering multi-disciplines from bioscience, sustainable energy sources, to plasma physics and new materials.
As part of its commitment to maintaining the highest possible safety standards at all of its facilities, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) adopted an updated site-wide seismic hazard analysis standard in 2007. In response to that effort, LANL's Seismic Analysis of Facilities and Evaluation of Risk (SAFER) Project has been conducting a detailed multiyear analysis of the seismic design loads on every existing facility at the site. New or proposed facilities are designed to meet the latest seismic response criteria. Today, LANL announced that it has self-reported to the National Nuclear Security Administration a new preliminary analysis of structural load capacities at Plutonium Facility - 4 (PF-4), located at Los Alamos National Laboratory's Technical Area 55. That analysis, which incorporated new geological data and sophisticated computer modeling, showed that a large earthquake that might occur in north-central New Mexico every 2,500 years could cause significant damage to some parts of the facility. That analysis also identified areas of the facility that if strengthened could increase its seismic response capability and would reduce the potential impact on the facility even under worst-case seismic conditions. "Everyone at Los Alamos is committed to the safety of our workforce, our facilities, and the community we call home,” said Bob McQuinn, associate director for nuclear and high hazard operations.
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