Celebrating Engineering: turning ideas into reality. Engineering is all around Atomic Weapons Establishment Plc. From the buildings Atomic Weapons Establishment Plc work in and the technology Atomic Weapons Establishment Plc use, to transport, energy, communications and healthcare, engineers turn ideas into reality and help solve some of society's most complex challenges. National Engineering Day is an opportunity to recognise that contribution and celebrate the curiosity, creativity and technical expertise that make progress possible. At AWE, engineering takes many forms. Its engineers bring together different disciplines, skills and experiences to tackle complex challenges, maintain critical capabilities and develop solutions for the future. And 2026 has already given Atomic Weapons Establishment Plc plenty to celebrate. Engineering success in 2026 This year, AWE engineering teams have delivered important milestones across the organisation. * As part of the Defence Industrial Strategy, the Ministry of Defence and Office for Students have announced £80 million of investment across 24 universities and colleges, creating up to 2,500 new undergraduate places for UK students in defence-critical subjects including engineering, computing, cyber security and advanced manufacturing. AWE is supporting six successful institutions: Bournemouth, Durham, Southampton, Surrey and Warwick universities, and the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE), all existing AWE partners through collaborations spanning research, skills development and innovation. The programme will help build the skilled workforce needed to support national security and deliver the Strategic Defence Review. * Its engineers have also received recognition beyond AWE. Four AWE engineers received prestigious Whitworth Scholarship Awards this year, recognising their practical engineering expertise, academic achievement and professional potential. * In addition, Melanie Horton was named one of the Women's Engineering Society (WES) Top 50 Women in Engineering for 2026. This prestigious recognition highlights individuals across the UK who are making a significant impact in engineering, demonstrating both technical excellence and leadership within the profession. These are very different achievements, but they have something important in common: people using engineering knowledge, curiosity, collaboration and ingenuity to solve problems and build capability for the future. A global profession Engineering is not one job, or even one discipline. It is a global profession encompassing an extraordinary range of skills, technologies and specialisms. The Institution of Engineering and Technology alone has more than 157,000 engineering and technology professionals across 148 countries. From established disciplines to emerging technologies, engineers around the world play an important role in improving how Atomic Weapons Establishment Plc live and work, while developing solutions to the challenges of tomorrow. Celebrating its engineers National Engineering Day is an opportunity to recognise the breadth of the profession and celebrate the engineers making a difference at AWE every day. Whether developing new technologies, maintaining critical capabilities, undertaking trials, designing future systems or supporting the next generation of engineers, their expertise helps AWE deliver today while preparing for the future. Today, Atomic Weapons Establishment Plc celebrate engineering and the people who turn ideas into reality.

NuFor 2026 brings global nuclear forensics community together. Delegates from six countries and 33 universities, national laboratories, industrial and government organisations gathered in Liverpool last week for NuFor 2026, the only open international conference dedicated to nuclear forensics and nuclear security. Sponsored by AWE and the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL), and delivered in partnership with the Institute of Physics, the annual event provides a unique forum for sharing developments, research and best practice across the nuclear forensics community. This year's conference, held from 13 to 15 October at the 'Spaces at the Spine' venue, Liverpool, welcomed around 100 delegates, including representatives from six of AWE's strategic partner organisations. Nuclear forensics plays an important role in supporting national nuclear security by applying scientific techniques to identify, characterise and understand nuclear and radiological materials found outside of regulatory control. Delivering this unique capability requires close collaboration between scientists, engineers, policy makers, law enforcement organisations and national security specialists, both at a national level within the UK, and internationally through strategic partnerships. Over three days, delegates explored the latest developments in nuclear forensics, across a broad range of topics, with talks in subject areas including analytical techniques, radiochemistry, materials science, modelling and simulation, environmental science, and sensor technologies. Invited speakers at NuFor 2026 included representatives from the UK Home Office, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency and several US national laboratories. A distinctive feature of NuFor is its commitment to supporting future talent, with the event continuing to platform students and early-career professionals to showcase their work alongside established researchers and jointly explore potential career pathways into nuclear security and related STEM disciplines. The conference also highlighted the strength of partnerships across UK industry, with invited contributions from UK national laboratories, universities and partner organisations working together to advance nuclear forensics capability. Researchers from several AWE-supported academic programmes and strategic partner organisations, including through the NTR-Net Academic Network, took part in this year's event, demonstrating the value of long-term collaboration across the national security community. Looking ahead, NuFor will continue to provide a vital platform for scientific collaboration, knowledge sharing and partnership building within nuclear security. The conference will be hosted at the University of Bristol in October 2027, before returning to London in 2028 to celebrate its 10th anniversary.