ABSTRACT
The French Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) construction program is characterized by the standardization of all its components, including the civil works. The concrete structure is a conventional beam and column structure. In this building there is a special structure: the turbine generator set pedestal which must exhibit high rigidity despite its plane dimensions and its spring-mounted support. An exception is the turbine pedestal whose volume could be quite significantly reduced with high performance concrete (HPC) provided prestressign is used; the current high re-bar content would make a reinforced concrete solution impractical. The mass of the concrete is very useful for shocks and the benefit of HPC is not obvious, except if fibers are added; in which case project economy could suffer. Given the diversity of the structures described above, the benefits of using HPC in place of traditional concrete must be examined on a case by case basis.
