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I was an electronics engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California
from 1977 to 2005.
I worked from 1978 to 1995
specializing in instrumentation & control systems for large superconducting magnets
associated with Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE)
experiments. The most recent projects that I had worked on were Princeton's (now defunct) Tokamak Physics Experiment (TPX) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). I was the Operations Manager of the
High-Field Test Facility and the
FENIX Test Facility. In the early '90s, FENIX was the 1st
location in the world where large 50-kA, 12-Tesla, Nb3Sn
superconductors could be tested under full-field operating conditions.
Most of my papers on the development of
quench-detection methods & sensors, and our test facilities & projects are available
here.
With MFE funding taking it in the shorts from a rather short-sighted
Congress, I made a major career change in late '95 & moved to the Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope
Separation (AVLIS) Program. I
developed prototype process-control systems with
LabVIEW
on networked computer systems. The non-linear, closed-loop control algorithms, process
logic, and user interfaces were developed & debugged at our AVLIS Demonstration
Facility.
According to our system
integration contractor, Bechtel, the
Uranium Enrichment Plant we were designing for the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) will, when complete, be the largest
process-control system in the world with greater than 70,000 I/O points.
On June 9th, 1999, USEC stopped its funding of the AVLIS
program at LLNL. This work was some of my best, but it is USEC
proprietary AND classified confidential, so no public documents are
available.
In August 1999, I moved to the FXR
project to replace their aging & independent computer-based control systems.
The new Contained Firing
Facility was being built at the end of FXR, on the Bunker 801 firing
table at the time. During this work, funding for the controls upgrade (operations)
became very
slim, but separately funded diagnostics work brought new data acquisition &
beam diagnostic systems to integrate. My
system design
evolved into 15 computer & PLC systems that integrated the accelerator controls,
data acquisition, archiving, & analysis systems.
I took an early retirement in 2005.
Did some consulting over the next few years, but it sucks when you have
to take a company to court to get them to pay you. Especially when
they must be served in Texas!
In 2011, I became a
certified MSF RiderCoach, and teach occasionally. |