Upgrade of the Los Alamos Plutonium Facility control system

After 20 yrs service, the Los Alamos Plutonium Facility is undergoing an upgrade to its aging Facility Control System. The new system design includes a network of redundantly-paired programmable logic controllers that will interface with about 2200 field data points. The data communications network that has been designed includes a redundant, self-healing fiber optic data highway as well as a fiber optic ethernet. Commercially available human-machine interface software running on a UNIX-based system displays facility subsystem status operator X-terminals. Project design features, methods, costs, and schedule are discussed.