Nuclear Siting Experience.

Although Dr. McCalpin is too young to have participated in the siting studies for nuclear power plants in the USA (1960s through mid-1970s), he has worked on siting studies two non-power-generating nuclear facilities in the USA, as described below.

Yucca Mountain (Nevada) High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository

The paleoseismic field studies at Yucca Mountain were all done by USGS and are described in the following USGS Professional Paper.

Dr. McCalpin was part of the expert team (Yucca Mountain PSHA Project) that was hired by the US Department of Energy to take the results of the paleoseismic studies, and use it to build a logic tree for the PSHA. There were 6 teams composed of 3 people each (1 seismologist, 1 paleoseismologist, and 1 expert in Nevada geology). Dr. McCalpin’s team was Jon Ake, seismologist (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation); James P. McCalpin, paleoseismologist; and Burt Slemmons, Nevada expert (but also a paleoseismologist in his own right). Although most of the results (PSHA logic trees, hazard curve output) are only contained in unpublished reports to the client, overviews of his results have been published here:

• Stepp, J.C., I. Wong, J. Whitney, R. Quittmeyer, N. Abrahamson, G. Torro, R. Youngs, K. Coppersmith, J. Savy, T. Sullivan, Yucca Mountain PSHA Project Members (2001). " Probabilistic hazard analyses for ground motions and fault displacement at Yucca Mountain, Nevada," Earthquake Spectra, 17(1), 113-151.
• Youngs, R.R., W.J. Arabasz, R.E. Anderson, A.R. Ramelli, J.P. Ake, D.B. Slemmons, J.P. McCalpin, D.I. Doser, C.J. Fridrich, F.H. Swan III, A.M. Rogers, J.C. Yount, L.W. Anderson, K.D. Smith, R.L. Bruhn, P.L.K. Knuepfer, R.B. Smith, CM. DePolo, D.W. O’Leary, K.J. Coppersmith, S.K. Pezzopane, D.P. Schwartz, J.W. Whitney, S.S. Olig, G.R. Torro (2003). A methodology for probabilistic fault displacement hazard analysis (PFDHA), Earthquake Spectra, 19(1), 191-219.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Dr. McCalpin was hired by this Federal weapons research facility to review the PSHA performed by Woodward-Clyde Consultants (1995) and to perform paleoseismic studies in support of revising WCC’s logic trees for their PSHA.

During 3 consecutive field seasons Dr. McCalpin mapped the Pajarito fault (dominant seismic source) and excavated 14 paleoseismic trenches across it. He also directed the geochronology work and use of the refined paleoseismic data in the revised PSHA. The following reports contain results of his work:

• McCalpin, J.P., 2005, Late Quaternary activity of the Pajarito fault, Rio Grande rift of northern New Mexico, USA; Tectonophysics, v. 408, no.1-4, p. 213-236.
• McCalpin, J.P., 2000, Late Quaternary faulting on the Pajarito fault, west of Los Alamos National Laboratory, north-central New Mexico; Summary Chronology of Quaternary Faulting Events; unpublished report submitted to Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico by GEO-HAZ Consulting, Inc., Estes Park, Colorado, April 10, 2000, 23 p.
• McCalpin, J.P., 1999, Late Quaternary faulting on the Pajarito fault, west of Los Alamos National Laboratory, north-central New Mexico; Results from seven trenches excavated in summer of 1998; Final Report: LANL report LA-UR-99-1120, submitted to Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos, NM by GEO-HAZ Consulting, Inc., Estes Park, CO, Aug. 31, 1998, 104 p.
• McCalpin, J.P., 1998, Late Quaternary faulting on the Pajarito fault, west of Los Alamos National Laboratory, north-central New Mexico; Results from the seven-trench transect excavated in summer of 1997: unpublished report submitted to Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM by GEO-HAZ Consulting, Inc., Estes Park, CO, May 9, 1998, 105 p. plus appendices.
• McCalpin, J.P., 1997, Geomorphology and structure of the Pajarito fault zone west of Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico: unpublished report submitted to Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, by GEO-HAZ Consulting, Inc., Estes Park, CO, April 9, 1997, 54 p. plus 12 oversized maps at 1:1200 scale.

Other Paleoseismic and PSHA Experience

Dr. McCalpin authored the definitive reference on how paleoseismic data are applied to PSHA (McCalpin, J.P., 1996, Application of Paleoseismic Data to Seismic Hazard Assessment and Neotectonic Research, Chapter 9 in McCalpin, J.P. (ed.), Paleoseismology: Academic Press, New York, p.439-493).

In addition, Dr. McCalpin has consulted to the national geological surveys of several countries that are still involved in siting nuclear power plants. These include the Council for Geosciences (South Africa) and the Korea Institute of Geology and Minerals (KIGAM). He has taught short courses in paleoseismology and applications to PSHA in both those countries.