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Domain: awe.co.uk

Stories and comments across the archive that link to awe.co.uk.

Comments · 7

  1. "Secret" as in "well signposted"? by Neil_Brown · · Score: 4, Informative · on Secret UK Uranium Components Plant Closed Over Safety Fears

    The AWE plant at Aldermaston is well signed from the road, and its website seems at least reasonably open about what it does:

    Our role at AWE is to manufacture and sustain the warheads for the Trident system ... Our work at AWE covers the entire life cycle of nuclear warheads; from initial concept, assessment and design, through to component manufacture and assembly, in-service support, and finally decommissioning and disposal.

  2. Dave Langford wrote about this, kinda by bsa3 · · Score: 2 · on Institutional Memory and Reverse Smuggling

    The Leaky Establishment, where the large engineering firm is the Atomic Weapons Establishment and the item to be smuggled back in is a physics package.

  3. Re:Connection? by RayAlmostAnonymous · · Score: 1 · on £52 Million Govt Funding for New UK Supercomputer

    No, this new one is for civilian stuff. They already have the one for the nuclear weapons programme

  4. Partly a Hoax, partly true! by timbos · · Score: 5, Informative · on British Chicken-Warmed Nuke
    Blue Peacock does/did exist. I have the dubious privilege of having touched the only remaining example, housed in the museum collection at AWE. The other is (and I quote the curator here) `lost'!

    It was a `landmine' designed to be set on a timer to ambush the Soviets as they advanced across Europe. It was based on the Blue Danube device that was the UK's first air-delivered nuclear weapon (essentially, they removed the fins).

    The device had up to an 8-day timer, but could also be set off locally --- either by booby trap, incase it was discovered, or a trigger. Amusingly there was a 10 second delay when you operated the trigger, just time to duck and cover :o) The chickens, though? That's clearly a hoax. Apart from anything else, the device was air and water tight.

  5. Partly a Hoax, partly true! by timbos · · Score: 5, Informative · on British Chicken-Warmed Nuke
    Blue Peacock does/did exist. I have the dubious privilege of having touched the only remaining example, housed in the museum collection at AWE. The other is (and I quote the curator here) `lost'!

    It was a `landmine' designed to be set on a timer to ambush the Soviets as they advanced across Europe. It was based on the Blue Danube device that was the UK's first air-delivered nuclear weapon (essentially, they removed the fins).

    The device had up to an 8-day timer, but could also be set off locally --- either by booby trap, incase it was discovered, or a trigger. Amusingly there was a 10 second delay when you operated the trigger, just time to duck and cover :o) The chickens, though? That's clearly a hoax. Apart from anything else, the device was air and water tight.

  6. Weapon is real, but no chickens by C+A+S+S+I+E+L · · Score: 1 · on British Chicken-Warmed Nuke
    Probably an April Fools', but who knows?

    Well, Google, for one. The weapon didn't use chickens, but was kept warm by glass fibre, apparently, according to the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment. (PDF).

  7. Re:Mars is out of reach using current technology by lxs · · Score: 2, Informative · on Bush To Announce Manned Trip To Moon, Mars

    Orion was a great idea, but the original plans were to launch the ship from earth. Let's hope that if they ever plan to revive it, they will launch from the moon (preferably the far side),since setting off nukes on or near earth would be far too disruptive. (early high-altitude tests like the Starfish test took out several communication satellites)