LANL’s Near-Real-Time Measurement Control Bolt-on to LANMAS

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has recently changed accountability systems to the DOE LANMAS (Local Area Network Material Accounting System). Because of this transition LANL was forced to create a new measurement control system which was imbedded in the old system. LANL has created a near real time Measurement Control Program module that is a bolt- on program to the DOE LANMAS accountability system. The measurement control module works seamlessly with LANMAS to make instruments and their respective measurement codes available/unavailable for transaction coding based on their measurement control status. The module gives the measurement control operator in near real time an immediate evaluation if an instrument is within normal statistical control. This allows the operators in the facility to know instantly if they can use the instrument to make accountability measurements. This reduces two areas of risk which increase non-value added components to the process, making accountability measurements with the assumption the instrument passed (risk of having to re-measure item(s)) and waiting for an answer before making measurements (delay processing). The module is integral to MC&A functions more so than for operations as evident with the built in plotting feature which allows measurement control to evaluate measurement control data near real time graphically. This function allows for quick visual interpretation of an instrument exhibiting abnormal conditions requiring attention. The measurement control group has complete control over the module. The administration functions controlled by the Materials Control and Accountability (MC&A) measurement control group include adding/removing instruments, standards, users, control limits and biases, type of instruments, decay calculations and many more functions. The system is flexible enough to accommodate measurement systems where a single representative standard is used to determine measurement control i.e. calorimeters, systems where a high and low standard evaluation (bracketing) is used i.e. balances, or systems where more than two standards are used to determine measurement control.