Energy Minister Michael Shanks has marked 70 years since Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall, the world's first nuclear power station to provide electricity to homes, as decommissioning at the Sellafield site in West Cumbria gathers pace.
Calder Hall opened in October 1956 and stopped generating electricity in 2003. Since then its reactors have been defuelled, major hazards removed, and redundant plant and structures dismantled, with the cooling towers demolished in 2007 and work on its turbine halls under way this year.
Michael Shanks: 'Clean, secure and homegrown energy'
"Since Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II first opened Calder Hall, nuclear power has helped keep the lights on for millions of Britons," Michael Shanks said.
"70 years on, the UK is driving forward the next generation of nuclear power through sites like Sizewell C and Hinkley Point C, which will deliver clean, secure and homegrown energy while creating thousands of skilled jobs across the country."
Making space for the future
Sellafield Ltd chief executive Euan Hutton said the station had "changed the world" and that safely decommissioning it would create the space the site needs for its future mission. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority group chief executive David Peattie said Sellafield continues to support jobs, British businesses and the nuclear skills the UK needs.
Plans are also emerging for Pioneer Park, a new clean energy development on Nuclear Decommissioning Authority land just outside the Sellafield boundary, intended to bring new technologies, jobs and investment to West Cumbria.
