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Orion is a large laser installation in the UK, and forms part of the UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment on the former RAF Aldermaston. It is known as the Orion Laser Facility.
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History
West Berkshire gave the £183m project planning permission in 2006.
Structure
The laser recreates the conditions of a thermonuclear explosion, by inertial confinement fusion. A 1mm-wide fragment is placed inside a six-tonne aluminium sphere and bombarded with a laser from ten directions. Two other lasers shine on the fragment, and it is heated to around 10 million degrees C. It allows experiments in plasma physics.
15% of the laser's time is spent on academic research, which is allocated through the Central Laser Facility in Oxfordshire.
The laser is a neodymium glass solid-state laser. The laser has a short petawatt power.