A system for providing a means of remote ejection and examination of sodium bonded shroud encapsulated fuels has been in use at LASL for over a year. The system is remotely capable of precise machining for clad separation and splitting at specified areas. Controlled heating and constant temperature monitoring is incorporated for sodium melting. The system provides for numerous operations such as: visual examinations, measurements, photography, and sodium dissolution.

A control system utilizing a microcomputer has been developed that controls the power supplies driving the Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX) magnet set and monitors magnet coil operation. The magnet set consists of 18 magnet coils that are driven by 26 dc power supplies. There are two possible modes of operation with this system: a pulse mode where the coils are pulsed on for several seconds with a dc power consumption of 16 MW; and a continuous mode where the coils can run steady state at 10 percent of maximum current ratings. The processor has been given an active control role and serves as an interface between the operator and electronic circuitry that controls the magnet power supplies. This microcomputer also collects and processes data from many analog singal monitors in the coil circuits and numerous status signals from the supplies. Placing the microcomputer in an active control role has yielded a compact, cost effective system that simplifies the magnet system operation and has proven to be very reliable. This paper will describe the TMX magnet control sytem and discuss its development.