CRANBERRY TWP — Westinghouse Electric said Friday that tests at a university verify the strength of the shield building that houses the company’s AP1000 nuclear power plant.

Researchers at Purdue University determined that the structure is flexible and strong enough to withstand earthquakes more powerful than federal design requirements, and that it provides a significant reserve margin to ensure radiation is contained.

In a news release, Westinghouse touted the test results because on May 20 Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that a review of the AP1000 uncovered problems.

He said Westinghouse needed to answer questions about the reactor’s shield building.

Regulators had questioned whether it could protect against severe weather or a jetliner crash. The commission said Westinghouse made errors in calculating the possible pressures on the walls of a water cooling tank and in the plant’s containment area during an accident.

The AP1000 shield building has an inner steel-wall containment vessel and an outer radiation shield made using steel-concrete-composite construction. Instead of using more conventional reinforced concrete, which is concrete filled with steel rebars, the steel-concrete approach uses a sandwich of steel faceplates filled with concrete, according to the release.

The study was done at Purdue’s Bowen Laboratory, which is internationally recognized for structural testing of large-scale components. This testing program was led by Amit Varma, associate professor of civil engineering, who is the director of the Center for Structural Engineering and Emerging Technologies for Nuclear Power Plants.

The research at Purdue was funded by Westinghouse, and the findings will be sent to the NRC.