Overview
- The 70th anniversary on Friday highlighted that teams are now taking down redundant buildings, removing thousands of tonnes of asbestos, and dismantling plant and pipework as part of Calder Hall’s transition from a power station to a decommissioning site.
- Calder Hall was confirmed fuel-free in 2019 after removal of all 40,000 fuel rods and the current work focuses on making space and reducing hazards for future operations at Sellafield.
- A GOV.UK case study published this month documents demolition progress and frames the programme as both a safety task and a learning platform to develop methods and plans that will be reused across the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority group.
- Clearing land at Calder Hall is intended to create room for new infrastructure such as the SIXEP Continuity Plant and to keep Sellafield able to deliver its wider clean-up mission.
- Local commemoration runs alongside the technical work, with a Beacon Museum exhibition from October 19–25 inviting memorabilia and talks by Sellafield project manager Jason Bone that connect community memory to jobs and skills preserved by the decommissioning programme.