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- 1369 -
THE ROLE OF REMOTE SENSING IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SITING
Bernhard Archer, Joseph A. Fischer and Robert J. Reed
Dames and Moore, Cranford, New Jersey - U.S.A.
Introduction
The idea for this paper was developed as a consequence
of the authors' involvement in siting cr site evaluation
studies for numerous nuclear generating stations throughout
the world. The remote sensing methods discussed nave all
been used, to some degree, in the performance of these
studies.
With the possible exception of major dam projects and
more recently oil or gas pipeline projects, such as the
Alaska Pipeline, the siting of nuclear power plants prob-
ably utilizes more of the planning, earth and environmental
Science disciplines than any other construction project.
In siting the plants, planning and investigation on a re-
gional and sub-regional scale is required. In this paper,
"Regional" is defined as the area within a 50 to 200 mile
radius of the plant site, "Sub-regional" is defined, de-
pending on the discipline involved, as a distance of from
5 to 50 miles from the site. These distances are identi-
fied in various regulations and guidelines issued by the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the regulatory agency
in the United States for plant safety. In the area of en-
vironmental concerns, the NRC also has the responsibility
for implementing the national goals expressed by the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
Since the area of concern can extend as far as 200
miles from a site, the gathering, analysis and integration
of data for this area is usually a time consuming and costly
undertaking. Any method for gathering the data which
would reduce both time and cost without sacrificing reli-
ability would therefore be highly desirable. In quantita-
tive terms a site qualification study may take from one to
two years to complete and may cost from one to eight million
dollars (U.S.) depending on location.
The time required for site validation, licensing anc
actual construction in the U.S. can be as long as 12 years.
The cost of typical power plants, currently under con-
Struction, is approaching one billion dcllars. It can
cost 500,000 dollars for every day lost beyond a scheduled
start-up date. Since construction delays have resulted
from the need to resolve hitherto undetected anomalous
geologic/tectonic features encountered after excavation has
started; identification of such features prior to the con-
struction stage nas become increasingly important. The
synoptic overview offered by remote sensing platforms makes
them ideal for detecting such features.
