Year
1995
Abstract
BNFL's THORP Plant, which started active operations early in 1994, has contracts to reprocess 7000t(U) of fuel belonging to 33 customers in 9 countries in the UK, Europe and Japan during its first 10 years of operation. Contracts are in place or being negotiated, and further business sought after, with the expectation of extending THORP's operations well beyond the initial 10 years. An integrated data management service, for the fuel storage areas of BNFL's THORP Division, is being implemented to replace several, independent, systems. This Fuel Information Service (FIS) will bring the Nuclear Materials Accountancy and Safeguards Records together with the Operating Records into one database from which all Safeguards Reports will be made. BNFL's contractual and commercial data and technical data on the stored fuel, required to support the reprocessing business, will also be brought into the common database. A commercially available software package, widely used in warehousing applications and the food and drugs industries, has been used as the basis of FIS. System enhancements and customisation have been developed in partnership between THORP Division, BNFL IT Services and the software supplier. FIS is the first stage in a project to integrate the Materials Management systems throughout the THORP nuclear recycling business including irradiated fuel receipt and storage, reprocessing and storage of products, mixed oxide fuel manufacture and the conditioning and storage of wastes.