Implementation of LANMAS at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant

On October 1, 1994, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) will install and begin running a production version of LANMAS (Local Area Network Materials Accounting System) developed jointly by the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC). The LANMAS model is largely generic in nature, making the concept, design, and portions of the code somewhat portable to other facilities. This paper outlines the benefits of implementing LANMAS and the lessons learned in hope of attracting other facilities to explore its application at their sites. Additionally, a wide range of possible development tools will demonstrate the generic nature of LANMAS and its adaptability to differing microcomputer environments. Nuclear materials accounting (NMA) and nuclear materials control (NMC) programs as part of the nuclear industry for over 50 years have greatly matured during that time. Typically, procedures, plans, and methods are current with today's knowledge and requirements, reflecting state-of-the-art technology in their application. A key element of all nuclear materials control and accounting (NMC&A) programs is a computerized tracking and accounting system tailored to each facility. These NMC&A software systems tend to be quite difficult and expensive to develop and maintain, thereby often utilizing decades old technology. This paper will describe a current concept in NMC&A software that is customizable and yet largely generic in nature, user-friendly and yet with sufficient power for any size application. Most importantly, it can be converted into a sitespecific NMC&A system at a relatively low cost as will be described for the system to be used at Martin Marietta Utility Service's Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Kentucky. This system is known as LANMAS for consistency with other efforts beginning in the DOE complex.