Pyrochemical processing automation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is developing a fully automated system for pyrochemical processing of special nuclear materials (SNM). The system utilizes a glove box, an automated tilt-pour furnace (TPF), an IBM developed gantry robot, and specialized automation tooling. All material handling within the glove box (i.e., furnace loading, furnace unloading, product and slag separation, and product packaging) is performed automatically. The objectives of the effort are to increase process productivity, decrease operator radiation, reduce process wastes, and demonstrate system reliability and availability. This paper provides an overview of the automated system hardware, outlines the overall operations sequence, and discusses the current status