Heritage

Present at the birth of the industry

Ultra Energy’s nuclear expertise can be traced back to 1956 with the founding of Plessey’s nucleonics division in the UK when it acquired the UK Atomic Energy Authority's IP and design authority in neutron monitoring and protection systems. This later passed into Winfrith Safety Systems, which was acquired by Ultra in 2006 with its experience across a range of nuclear safety systems forming the basis of Ultra Energy.

In the US, Weed Instrument was founded in 1968 to design and manufacture nuclear qualified temperature and pressure sensors. In 2008, Ultra Electronics acquired Weed Instrument and Siemens Radmon (‘radiation monitoring’). These companies brought an international customer base, decades of experience in nuclear qualified temperature and pressure technologies, and strengthened our offer in radiation monitoring, including in military nuclear applications.

Lab Impex Systems’ strengths in radiation detection across health physics, air monitoring and stack effluent discharge systems were added to Ultra Energy’s already significant solutions portfolio when the company was acquired by Ultra in 2014.

Today, thanks to these acquisitions and continuous in-house R&D successes, our technology has a role in maintaining the safety of nearly all the UK’s civil and military nuclear facilities, is installed in 80% of US nuclear power stations and is in operation in numerous nuclear sites across the world.