The design of the CPRF control system

The Confinement Physics Research Facility (CPRF), under construction at Los Alamos, is a facility for research into the plasma confinement properties of various magnetic-field configurations. The first device to be tested in the CPRF will be ZTH, a reverse field pinch. The CPRF/ZTH control system has been designed as a distributed system with four major semiindependent subsystems. Each subsystem will be capable of stand-alone operation for commissioning and maintenance purposes. The subsystem controller hardware has been selected. It will consist of commercially available programmable logic controllers (PLCs) linked by a fast fiber-optic network. The man-machine interface, which is under procurement as of June, 1989, will have multiple graphic workstations interfaced to the PLC fiber-optic network. The central control console will initially have three stations. Permanent local stations will be located at two of the subsystems with a transportable station serving the remaining subsystems. Standard process-control software will be used, but the selection criteria emphasize the open architecture of the system so that user programs can be easily integrated.<>