Latest News

As of 15 May 2020, we are delighted to welcome Alison Atkinson, as our new acting CEO and MD, taking over from Iain Coucher. Under Iain’s leadership, AWE made significant improvements in production operations and the management of key capital projects, and prepared AWE for the challenges of the future while maintaining our focus on […]

AWE has been recognised by mental health charity Mind for its commitment to workplace wellbeing.   AWE was one of over 100 organisations to take part in Mind’s annual Workplace Wellbeing Index and recognised with a Bronze Award, which is given to organisations that have started their journey to better mental health at work by developing […]

This week (30 March – 5 April) is World Autism Awareness Week – seven days where people across the UK take part in activities to raise money and awareness for the National Autistic Society.  There are lots of ways to spread awareness, and get advice and support from the charity- especially during this difficult time. […]

The government has classified AWE as a critical organisation in the delivery of key defence and national security outputs. This means that a number of employees have critical worker status and will continue to come to work. Critical worker status has also been confirmed for a number of our essential supply chain partners. Strict measures […]

  The Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2019 (REPPIR 2019) is new legislation. It was introduced by the Government to further strengthen Great Britain’s already robust arrangements for radiological emergencies. These changes aim to deliver a consistent approach to radiation emergency preparedness and response across the radiological defence nuclear and civil nuclear sectors. […]

To celebrate British Science Week March 6-15, AWE has worked in partnership with its local schools and the Royal Institution to support delivery of science demonstrations to nearly a 1,000 local students, teachers and parents. AWE’s Community Engagement Manager, Philippa Kent, who runs the company’s award-winning schools programme, said: “British Science week is a great […]

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. International Women’s Day is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action. In support of this we spoke to some of our wonderful female […]

On 25 February, the Government announced the replacement warhead programme in Parliament, reaffirming its commitment to maintaining the United Kingdom’s minimum credible independent nuclear deterrent, which exists to deter the most extreme threats to the UK and our NATO allies. AWE has been working closely with the Ministry of Defence to maintain capability in readiness […]

The AWE Charity Fund has donated £5000 to charity Home-Start. The donation is in support of the Isolated Families Project which aims to reduce the impact that isolation can have on families with young children in West Berkshire. According to the charity, parents with poor mental health report finding parenting difficult and often struggle with […]

AWE has published its third gender pay gap report. All UK companies with more than 250 employees are required to publish this report annually, and our 2020 report shows that our median gender pay gap is 18.6%. This represents an increase compared to last year’s 15%, and is broadly in line with the current national […]

On 11th February, the United Nations, partners worldwide, women and girls will mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrating the theme, ‘Investment in Women and Girls in Science for Inclusive Green Growth.’ The Day focuses on the reality that science and gender equality are both vital for the achievement of internationally agreed […]

The 2nd – 9th February marks the 13th National Apprenticeship Week. National Apprentice Week is an annual week-long celebration of apprenticeships across England and a time to recognise and applaud apprenticeship success stories across the country. Throughout the 13 years, National Apprenticeship Week has brought together apprenticeship supporters from across the country, with MPs, ambassadors, […]

AWE welcomes the recently published National Audit Office report into nuclear infrastructure. The report recognises the complexity of these projects and acknowledges the improvements in managing them since 2016. We will continue to work closely with the MOD and our regulators. Read more.

The new year brings an exciting new role and responsibility for AWE graduate physicist, Josiah O’Brien, who has been appointed to the WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) Young Professionals Board (YPB). The WISE YPB is responsible for developing opportunities that support WISE in its quest for gender balance in STEM industries. It comprises a […]

“Our way of operating is fully inclusive, getting the best from every team and every individual.” AWE is very proud to announce that today we have been accredited as a Disability Confident Employer by the Department of Work & Pensions.  It’s very timely as 3rd December is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The […]

We are delighted to announce that the AWE Quality team won Team of the Year at the International Quality Awards, hosted by the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) at London’s prestigious Connaught Rooms. The International Quality Awards celebrates excellence in the Quality sector. Judged via a rigorous evidence-based process, these awards acknowledge the contribution of the […]

MOD Quality Awards 2019 At a ceremony held in Bristol on 5 November, AWE won four awards in this year’s prestigious MOD Quality Awards. This is a great achievement for the business. In total the MOD gave out 14 awards across industry and various departments within the MOD and Armed Forces. The judges also chose […]

AWE has awarded a contract to Cray to install a new supercomputer using their new Shasta computer architecture. The name Vulcan was chosen after a vote by staff who will be using the system. Vulcan certainly packs a punch, featuring 5000 processors based upon 32-core, 2.9 GHz, second-generation AMD EPYC ‘Rome’ sockets, with a theoretical […]

AWE’s Director, Infrastructure Projects Delivery, Alison Atkinson has today (Oct 17) been recognised as the sixth most influential woman in engineering, by Inclusive Boards, in partnership with the Financial Times. Alison sits on the AWE Board and has responsibility for the delivery of AWE’s multi-billion pound capital investment programme, involving the design, construction and commissioning […]

AWE’s Head of Product Assurance, Graham Hughes, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering He is one of 54 leading engineers, from the UK and around the world, who have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering in recognition of their outstanding and continuing contributions to the […]