Plutonium Immobilization Project -- Robotic canister loading

Technical Report · Tue Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/752208· OSTI ID:752208

Hamilton, R L

The Plutonium Immobilization Program (PIP) is a joint venture between the Savannah River Site (SRS), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). When operational in 2008, the PIP will fulfill the nation's nonproliferation commitment by placing surplus weapons-grade plutonium in a permanently stable ceramic form and making it unattractive for reuse. Since there are significant radiation and security concerns, the program team is developing novel and unique technology to remotely perform plutonium immobilization tasks. The remote task covered in this paper employs a jointed arm robot to load seven 3.5 inch diameter, 135-pound cylinders (magazines) through the 4 inch diameter neck of a stainless steel canister. Working through the narrow canister neck, the robot secures the magazines into a specially designed rack pre-installed in the canister. To provide the deterrent effect, the canisters are filled with a mixture of high-level waste and glass at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF).

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-96SR18500
• OSTI ID: 752208
• Report Number(s): WSRC-TR-99-00487; TRN: US0002773
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 4 Jan 2000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
NUCLEAR WEAPONS DISMANTLEMENT
NON-PROLIFERATION POLICY
PLUTONIUM
CONTAINERS
LOADING
ROBOTS
REMOTE HANDLING
WASTE FORMS
GLASS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES