Written question asked by Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 30 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 1 February 2006. It was answered by Lord Reid of Cardowan (Labour) on Monday, 6 February 2006 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

HELEN Laser

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the HELEN laser at Aldermaston; what its future purpose is; and if he will make a statement;

Answer: In 2001 a review of the capability provided by the HELEN laser identified a requirement to replace it in order to attain, under laboratory conditions, previously inaccessible temperature and pressure regimes akin to those actually obtained in a nuclear weapon. This was deemed essential to underwrite the continued safety and reliability of the Trident nuclear warhead stockpile in the nuclear test ban era.Accordingly, we shall be replacing HELEN—which has given 25 years of useful service—with the ORION laser, whose primary role will be to enable the safety and reliability of the Trident stockpile to be underwritten through the remainder of its service life. Until its planned decommissioning in 2008, HELEN will continue to be used for worthwhile experiments both in support of Trident and as a test bed for some of the technologies and equipment to be used on the ORION laser.

Secondary information