Monarch Queen Elizabeth 11 Opened Calder Hall to Great Fanfare but ...

Nuclear Bosses Say King Would Only Be Invited to Open New Nuclear Facilities Such As the Dumping of Calder Hall in a Big Hole Called a Geological Disposal Facility.

PRESS RELEASE BELOW:

NFLA media release, 7 July 2025. For immediate use.

Party poopers: NDA has no plans to invite King to demolish Calder Hall.

The Nuclear Free Local Authorities and Radiation Free Lakeland are disappointed that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has no plans to take up our suggestion that His Majesty, The King be invited to do the honours when the iconic Calder Hall site is demolished.

On 17 October 1956, Queen Elizabeth II officially opened Calder Hall ostensibly as the world’s first operational station generating electricity using nuclear fission; unbeknownst to most people its sinister primary purpose was to generate the plutonium needed to create the United Kingdom’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.

After almost seven decades, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is now planning the final clearance of the iconic Calder Hall site. The two campaigning groups felt ‘it would be fitting’ to invite the late Queen’s eldest son, our present Sovereign King Charles III, to ‘do the honours’ once planning approval is received from Cumberland Council to proceed.

In his response. NDA Group Chief Executive Officer David Peattie said that ‘whilst we appreciate you taking the time to suggest a Royal ceremony to mark the event...this is not in our plans. Further to this I believe that protocols dictate that the Monarch would only consider opening new facilities and not closing them’.

To which we would say: King Charles might fancy the idea of blowing something up for a change, rather than merely ribbon cutting a new venture. After all his first command as a Royal Navy officer was of a minesweeper clearing high explosives, so why not send him an invite and see?

(Marianne Birkby from Radiation Free Lakeland kindly supplied the image which accompanies this story postulating that a Royal visit might be arranged to open a future Geological Disposal Facility, around 2040 at the earliest. Perhaps one more for William than Charles? We shall see).

Ends//..For more information please email Richard Outram, NFLA Secretary at

richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk

This media release also appears on the NFLA website at:

https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/party-poopers-nda-has-no-plans-to-invite-king-to- demolish-calder-hall/

The letter sent by NFLAs and Radiation Free Lakeland to Mr David Peattie, Group CEO, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority dated 25 June.

Dear Mr Peattie,

We note with interest recent media reports that the NDA / Nuclear Restoration Services is in discussions with Cumberland Council Planning Officers over an application to secure planning approval for the demolition of the old turbine hall of the Calder Hall nuclear power station.

The Calder Hall plant was of course the first full-scale operational nuclear power station in the world with a dual purpose, primarily to produce weapons-grade plutonium to support the development of the UK’s nuclear weapons programme, and secondarily to generate electricity for the National Grid. Commissioned in 1956, the plant was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 17 October of that year.

Given this history, and that fact that the turbine hall is such an iconic part of the plant, we would like to be so bold as to suggest it would be fitting for the NDA / NRS to extend an invitation to our late Queen’s son, His Majesty King Charles III, to ‘do the honours’ so to speak in initiating the demolition?

Yours sincerely,
Richard Outram, Secretary, UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities Marianne Birkby, Radiation Free Lakeland

The reply received from Mr David Peattie dated 4 July: