Project Orion
For more than a quarter of a century AWE has carried out plasma physics research using its HELEN laser. This facility has reached the end of its operational life and is now being replaced with a state of the art laser facility known as Orion.
Orion will occupy a site about the size of a football pitch on the western edge of the Aldermaston site. The new system will support experiments at unprecedented extremes of temperature and density to support AWE's core missions, including the ability to replicate in the laboratory the physical conditions at the heart of a nuclear reaction. Some of the facility's operational time will be set aside for experiments proposed by the academic research community.
A multi-disciplinary team of project managers, laser specialists and engineers has been established to deliver the project effectively and efficiently. The laser will take around five years from commission to
construction.