Automatic data processing and analysis system for monitoring region around a planned nuclear power plant

Abstract

The Institute of Seismology of University of Helsinki is building a new local seismic network, called OBF network, around planned nuclear power plant in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. The network will consist of nine new stations and one existing station. The network should be dense enough to provide azimuthal coverage better than 180° and automatic detection capability down to M L −0.1 within a radius of 25 km from the site. The network construction work began in 2012 and the first four stations started operation at the end of May 2013. We applied an automatic seismic signal detection and event location system to a network of 13 stations consisting of the four new stations and the nearest stations of Finnish and Swedish national seismic networks. Between the end of May and December 2013 the network detected 214 events inside the predefined area of 50 km radius surrounding the planned nuclear power plant site. Of those detections, 120 were identified as spurious events. A total of 74 events were associated with known quarries and mining areas. The average location error, calculated as a difference between the announced location from environment authorities and companies and the automatic location, was 2.9 km. During the same time period eight earthquakes between magnitude range 0.1–1.0 occurred within the area. Of these seven could be automatically detected. The results from the phase 1 stations of the OBF network indicates that the planned network can achieve its goals.