The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston near Reading, is at the heart of British nuclear weapons production. It is responsible for design, production, maintenance and decommissioning of Britain's nuclear warheads. AWE cooperates extensively with nuclear weapons' laboratories in the United States on research and development, and maintaining the UK's current Trident warheads.
The AWE is owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), but since the early 1990s, it has had a GOCO status - Government Owned-Contractor Operated. So, although the MoD owns the site, private companies (AWE Management Ltd) run the day to day operations. From April 2000, AWE was run by British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), a private company run by the UK government, Lockheed Martin (the US company that also develops and produces the Trident missiles) and Serco (a UK company). In 2009 however, the government sold its BNFL share to a US company, Jacobs Engineering, so now AWE is two thirds run by US corporations. See CND’s response to this sale.
AWE Burghfield
The Atomic Weapons Establishment has another site at Burghfield, seven miles from Aldermaston. This site is responsible for assembling the UK's nuclear warheads. Nuclear components are transported by road in convoys from Aldermaston to Burghfield and there they are assembled. After this the warheads are then transported to Coulport, adjacent to the Faslane base in Scotland, where they are stored before being deployed on Trident submarines.
New Developments
In 2002, AWE Management Ltd published a plan to redevelop and build new facilities at the Aldermaston site. These ongoing developments are on a massive scale (AWE reported the scale of construction as being equivalent to that required in building Heathrow Airport's Terminal Five). Costs are estimated to be in excess of £5 billion and over 1,500 additional personnel have been employed.
CND believes that the purpose of many of the new facilities is to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons. This major redevelopment at Aldermaston ties in with the parliamentary decision in 2007 to develop a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines to replace the current system Trident after 2028. Aldermaston will be responsible for the warheads for this new system.
Computer Facilities
New supercomputer facilities have been a big focus of the new developments at Aldermaston. These facilities give AWE one of the most powerful computer systems in the world - possibly only exceeded by the supercomputers used in the US for its atomic weapons' development. Computer simulations will be augmented by experimental data provided by other new facilities being built at Aldermaston.
Using these facilities, means that new nuclear warheads could be developed without the need for a nuclear weapon test explosion. This kind of test is not allowed under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT); the UK has signed and ratified this treaty.
Orion Laser
The old laser facility at the AWE site has been replaced by a new facility which is 1,000 times more powerful. Data from the Orion laser facility and the supercomputers are likely to be used to gain a better understanding of the physics behind nuclear explosions and therefore aid computer simulations used in the design of new warheads. It is believed that scientists are working closely with the National Ignition Facility in the US which has similar capabilities.
Hydrodynamic Testing - Core Punch Facility
This kind of testing allows some of the extreme conditions found inside a nuclear explosion to be recreated in a laboratory setting. The results from such tests could then be used to improve computer simulations. A special treaty was agreed between the UK and France in 2010 to work together on hydrodynamic testing. This treaty agrees construction of new facilities (planned to be operational by 2015) in both France and the UK. The Teutates Technology Development Centre is planned for Aldermaston and the Teutates Epure facility is planned to be built in Valduc, France.
Material Sciences
New facilities are also planned to research the properties and structure of materials in order to gain a better understanding of how they behave inside a nuclear warhead.
New Production Facilities
The plans also include refurbishing the facilities to build the warheads. These include new facilities for handling plutonium, highly enriched uranium, tritium, high explosives and new warhead assembly facilities.
Working with other research establishments
AWE also works closely with universities and other laboratories in basic research that could contribute to the development of new nuclear weapons. The state-of-the-art facilities at the Aldermaston site are very attractive to researchers working on 'dual use' technologies, for example, new technologies which can be used for the enrichment of uranium but may also have other industrial uses.
The US connection
The current warhead used on the UK's Trident nuclear weapons system is widely acknowledged to be based on the W76 warhead the US uses on its Trident system. Under the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement, Aldermaston scientists regularly take part in exchanges and experiments with their counterparts at US nuclear facilities, where there are also new research, development and building programmes.
Opposition
The first Aldermaston March was at Easter 1958 shortly after the formation of CND. Opposition to the site has continued ever since; regular actions are organised by the Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp(aign) .
CND demands an end to the production of nuclear warheads and the redeployment of staff and facilities to nuclear decommissioning.
