Year
1970
Abstract
attelle's Plutonium Laboratory is a facility specifically designed for conducting plutonium fuel studies. It has an integrated capability ranging from basic and applied research through development, including the synthesis of plutonium compounds, fuel element fabrication, and reprocessing studies. The initial facility was constructed in 1960 and was expanded in 1964 and again in 1967 due to increased research demands. As the laboratory increased, both in size and research demands, the problem of nuclear materials management increased proportionately. In 1968, a decision was made to develop a series of computer programs to assist in the management and control of special nuclear materials. During the preliminary planning for this project, it soon became apparent that it would be a difficult task to prepare a computerized control system for a laboratory situation such as exists at BCL's Plutonium Laboratory since very little material follows a predetermined path through the laboratory and there are no glove box trains. In addition, material can be transferred throughout the laboratory almost at random, according to the decision of the engineer in charge. Despite these difficulties, planning and programming progressed smoothly and a preliminary version of the computerized nuclear materials management program was introduced in early 1969. This version lacked many of the necessary features to adequately handle the accounting problems of the laboratory. A second version was introduced in late 1969. This version has been debugged and is now operating smoothly. At the present time, the laboratory is running on a parallel system of materials control, utilizing the manual materials control system and also operating the computerized program.