scope:

PREFACE

The AISC Specification for Safety-Related Steel Structures for Nuclear Facilities, hereafter referred to as the Nuclear Specification, addresses the design, fabrication, and erection of safety-related steel structures for nuclear facilities. This document uses the 2005 AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings, hereafter referred to as the Specification, as the baseline document and modifies the specific portions of the Specification to make it applicable to the design, fabrication, and erection of the safety-related steel structures for nuclear facilities.

Safety-related steel structures in nuclear facilities, which provide support and protective functions to equipment vital to the facility, are subjected to certain unique design forces and loads resulting from postulated accidents (such as turbine generated missiles and jet forces from high-energy line breaks) and from extreme natural phenomena (tornadoes and earthquakes). The relevant regulatory and jurisdictional authorities (for example, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy) dictate special quality assurance requirements and additional design requirements associated with these structures. As such, safety related nuclear structures require special design provisions. The provisions specified herein are to be used in conjunction with the 2005 AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings. The Nuclear Specification consists of modifications (additions, deletions, and replacements) to the Specification.

The Nuclear Specification has been developed as a consensus document to provide uniform practice in the design of steel-framed structures for nuclear facilities.