GERMANTOWN, Md. – There’s only one place to go to discuss natural phenomena hazards and their impact on nuclear facilities with experts from the federal government, national laboratories, academia, regulatory entities and private sector.

   And that’s the Natural Phenomena Hazards Meeting and Training Session, hosted by EM’s Chief of Nuclear Safety (CNS) in Germantown, Md. earlier this month.

   Dr. Stephen McDuffie, a seismic engineer with the CNS staff, led the meeting, which featured about 40 presentations on the latest developments in natural hazard characterization and mitigation.

   It was the third time CNS held the biennial event but the first time it was named a training session. 

   “We added 'Training Session' to emphasize the meeting’s value as an educational, career-development experience for people interested in the sub-disciplines of natural hazard characterization and mitigation,” McDuffie said. “With its fairly small size and informal atmosphere, the meeting provided a great networking opportunity for more junior members of this community to get to know the leaders in the field.” 

   Natural phenomena are observable events that are not man-made, such as tornadoes, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. EM is primarily concerned with earthquakes because of their severe consequences, which can also induce facility fires, according to McDuffie. He noted the importance of properly characterizing the hazards — such as conducting studies on earthquake faults — and designing facilities to mitigate their impact. 

   “How long is the fault, how big an earthquake might it produce, and how often? Some move frequently while others might move only once every 10,000 years or more. An important first step through field work is characterizing,” McDuffie said.

   EM sites at greatest risk for earthquakes include Savannah River, Oak Ridge and Hanford, McDuffie said. EM’s Office of River Protection is presently engaged in a study of volcanic ash fall hazard due to the active Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state. 

   About 95 people attended the meeting from across the U.S, including representatives from EM and other DOE programs; Idaho and Los Alamos national laboratories; EM contractors such as Savannah River Remediation and Washington River Protection Solutions; the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and entities such as the Electric Power Research Institute.

   “It’s focused on a lot of different specialties. One cross-cutting theme that brings us all together is protecting nuclear facilities from natural hazards,” McDuffie said.

   Participants reacted positively to the meeting’s offerings.

   “It’s so useful to get this specialized community together in one place,” McDuffie said. “We got a lot of feedback that it’s a very well-organized event and so valuable.”

   CNS is responsible for ensuring DOE nuclear safety regulations, standards, guides, and national and international technical standards are applied correctly in the conduct of DOE’s nuclear mission under the purview of the Under Secretary for Management and Performance.