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AWE source
The Company has commissioned an independent investigation into the cause of last night’s fire and will make all findings available to its independent regulators, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (part of the Health & Safety Executive HSE).

AWE source
 
A 600m cordon, which was set up last night around the building which caught fire last night (Aug 3) at AWE Aldermaston, has now been reduced to 300m. This now brings the cordon back within AWE site perimeters.

AWE source
 
At around 9pm on Tuesday 3 August, a fire broke out in a building within the conventional non-nuclear explosives area of AWE Aldermaston. AWE’s fire and rescue service were quickly on the scene and were supported by Royal Berkshire fire fighters. One member of AWE staff received minor injuries in the incident and was treated by first aiders on the site.

AWE source 
 
Specialists have begun recovery work inside the explosives process building damaged in a fire at AWE Aldermaston earlier this month.

Global Security Newswire source
 
The former leader of the Liberal Democrats party, Menzies Campbell, yesterday said the United Kingdom's submarine-based nuclear deterrent system should be considered in a wider study of the country's military operations, the Press Association reported (see GSN, Aug. 18).

Extract:
'The core of AWE work is multi-disciplinary Science, Engineering and Technology partnerships. Such  partnerships, whether between internal teams at AWE or through external interactions with academia or  industry, are fundamental to developing and applying solutions to the complex problems we face today. Many  of the challenges, as exemplified in this edition, cover unusual environments of high temperature, pressure,  voltage and very short timescales. It is through the combination of theoretical modelling and high fidelity  experimentation that we satisfy ourselves in our understanding of the phenomena present in nuclear weapon  performance in an era without further nuclear tests. As time marches on from the nuclear test database, the  future challenges will place a greater emphasis on our SET capability and our external interactions will play  a key role.'
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AWE source
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is the proud owner of two new powerful supercomputers which have a combined peak performance in excess of 70 teraflops (trillions of calculations per second).

Extract: 'Weighing in at 40 tonnes, Orion’s new power supply is truly heavy duty.

Minutes of the 61st AWE Local Liaison Committee Meeting
Synopsis:

• AWE had sought advice from the Health Protection Agency about the inclusion in AWE emergency plans of mobile homes and caravans.


• An overnight concrete pour took place on the night of 12 May as part of the construction of a new facility at the Aldermaston site. Around 160 return lorry movements were required to deliver 750 cubic metres of concrete. This was the first of three similar concrete pours which will be required for the project over the next few months.


• AWE denied the authenticity of a letter in the Basingstoke Gazette purpoting to be from a disgruntled employee critical of business practices.


• No further redundancies were planned.


• There was nothing to report on use of AWE for dismantled nuclear submarine waste storage.

Like for like renewal of Trident will come at expense of conventional forces
 
The UK's current commitment to maintain a nuclear-armed missile submarine on deterrent patrol at all times (Continuous At-Sea Deterrence, or 'CASD'), is driven as much by institutional and political momentum as by strategic necessity, and plans to order a new generation of submarines after 2015 now threatens to be at the expense of further reduction in conventional forces according to a new report from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).