Assessment of the tornado impact on the Chernobyl new safe confinement

All the nuclear facility structures must be analyzed for tornado loads. This analysis was per-formed when designing the New Safe Confinement over the ruined Chernobyl power unit (NSC ChNPP). The standard methods of tornado analysis could not be applied due to its large size and geometric shape. Therefore, it was necessary to develop new calculation methods. The paper provides detailed information on the performed calculations and describes the conservative assumptions made when there was not enough information. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the gained experience of performing such an analysis of this unique structure, which may be of some interest. The following two complex problems are considered: • establishing the design tornado parameters; • developing an engineering methodology for the tornado analysis. Moreover, questions are formulated that should be clarified when carrying out similar designs.