Developing Glovebox Robotics to Meet the National Robot Safety Standard and Nuclear Safety Criteria
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Science Applications International Corp., Pleasanton, CA (United States)
Development of a glove box based robotic system by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is reported. Safety issues addressed include planning to meet the special constraints of operations within a hazardous material glove box and with hostile environments, compliance with the current and draft national robotic system safety standards, and eventual satisfaction of nuclear material handling requirements. Special attention has been required for the revision to the robot and control system models which antedate adoption of the present national safety standard. A robotic test bed, using non-radioactive surrogates is being activated at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop the material handling system and the process interfaces for future special nuclear material processing applications. Part of this effort is to define, test, and revise adequate safety controls to ensure success when the system is eventually deployed at a DOE site. The current system is primarily for demonstration and testing but will evolve into the baseline configuration from which the production system is to be derived. This results in special hazards associated with research activities which may not be present on a production line. Nuclear safety is of paramount importance and has been successfully addressed for 50 years in the DOE weapons production complex. It carries its particular requirements for robot systems and manual operations, as summarized below: Criticality must be avoided (materials cannot consolidate or accumulate to approach a critical mass). Radioactive materials must be confined. The public and workers must be protected from accountable radiation exposure. Nuclear material must be readily retrievable. Nuclear safety must be conclusively demonstrated through hazards analysis.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Science Applications International Corp., Pleasanton, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 5763539
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-108411; CONF-9110329-1; ON: DE92007304
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International robots and Vision Automation Show and Conference, Detroit, MI (United States), 22-24 Oct 1991
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
GLOVEBOXES
AUTOMATION
PLUTONIUM
REMOTE HANDLING
PLANNING
RADIATION PROTECTION
ROBOTS
SAFETY
SAFETY ANALYSIS
TESTING
ACTINIDES
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
METALS
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Glove Box Based Robotic System
Hazards Analysis
420203* - Engineering- Handling Equipment & Procedures