Nuclear Regulatory Commission Use of Flood Risk Analyses

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) (formerly the Atomic Energy Commission) has recognized the potential hazards resulting from the flooding of a commercial nuclear power plant. Indeed, the siting regulation (10 CFR 100) recognized floods as a natural hazard. Flooding of a great enough magnitude in some cases could cause loss of electrical controls, emergency cooling water pumps, diesel generators and other safety systems through mechanisms of inundation, impact forces, and erosion. In order to independently evaluate the potential for flooding at proposed reactor sites, the Atomic Energy Commission in 1968 contracted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey to evaluate flooding potential at coastal sites and river sites, respectively. For river sites, the USGS often used statistical.