The possibility to excite low--energy nuclear states using laser induced plasma on the Prague Asterix Laser System PALS is investigated. This medium--energy high--power facility yields interaction intensities at the level of $10^{16}-10^{17}$~Wcm$^{-2}$ thus producing subrelativistic plasmas with electron temperature of the order of 1--10~keV. Based on a systematic survey of suitable candidate nuclei, the search for the 6.238~keV excitation and decay in $^{181}$Ta has been initiated.