Remote handling in the Plutonium Immobilization Project: Puck handling

Since the break up of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, the US and Russia have been negotiating ways to reduce their nuclear stockpiles. Economics is one of the reasons behind this, but another important reason is safeguarding these materials from unstable organizations and countries. With the downsizing of the nuclear stockpiles, large quantities of plutonium are being declared excess and must be safely disposed of. The Savannah River Site (SRS) has been selected as the site where the immobilization facility will be located. Conceptual design and process development commenced in 1998. SRS will immobilize excess plutonium in a ceramic waste form and encapsulate it in vitrified high level waste in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) canister. These canisters will then be interred in the national repository at Yucca Mountain, New Mexico. The facility is divided into three distinct operating areas: Plutonium Conversion, First Stage Immobilization, and Second Stage Immobilization. This paper will discuss the first two operations