Suffolk County Council has no evacuation plans in case of an incident involving the US nuclear weapons which are widely believed to be held at RAF Lakenheath, a Canary investigation can reveal.

RAF Lakenheath nuclear weapons: council has no evacuation plans in place

The base, which is owned by the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF), but operated and managed by the United States Air Force (USAF), was widely reported to have received a delivery of US nuclear weapons in July 2025.

The UK and US governments have a policy of neither confirming, nor denying, the alleged locations of deployed nuclear weapons.

However, the Times newspaper reported that B61-12 nuclear bombs were likely delivered on a USAF C-17 transport aircraft. It was detected landing at the base in July.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) called on the UK government to make a formal statement about the suspected delivery. It would mark the first time that US nuclear weapons had been stationed on UK soil for 17 years.

Campaigners find UK awarded US military nuclear safety exemption

CND previously revealed that the UK government had issued an exemption to US armed forces stationed in the UK, meaning they don’t have to abide by the same nuclear safety rules as similar organisations.

The campaign group found that a nationwide exemption certificate issued by the UK government:

exempts Visiting Forces – primarily US military personnel – engaged in work with ionising radiations, from any legal enforcement of safety standards, using powers under Regulation 40 of the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 and Regulation 25 of the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulation 2019. This means they are not legally bound to have in place plans and measures for emergency situations involving radioactive materials and nuclear weapons.

Such plans would normally include preparations for evacuations of civilians in affected areas, coordinated by the local resilience forum.

Commenting at the time, CND general secretary Sophie Bolt said:

Nuclear weapons are the most destructive weapons in the world. They put us all at risk every day. Yet the government is more concerned about its special relationship with the US than people’s safety.

This declassified document shows that not only are US forces exempt from British nuclear safety laws at RAF Lakenheath, they are exempt at US bases right across Britain. This means that local authorities will never be told about any nuclear weapons present in their area. And will be under no legal obligation to produce emergency radiation plans.

Canary FOI finds council has no Lakenheath nuke incident evacuation plans

It is important that local emergency services are able to plan for how to respond to potential incidents in their areas, especially when there are sites which present nuclear or radiological risks, like nuclear power stations.

Suffolk hosts the Sizewell nuclear site, which has the in-operation Sizewell B nuclear power station and the planned Sizewell C plant.

The Suffolk Resilience Forum Radiation Emergency Plan does cover plans for evacuations involving incidents at Sizewell.

However, the plan only covers risks relating to “fixed civil nuclear sites”, “civil radiation material in transit” and “defence nuclear material in transit”, leaving fixed defence nuclear sites conspicuously absent.

Using the Freedom of Information Act (FOI Act), the Canary asked Suffolk County Council if it or its local resilience forum had:

updated its nuclear and/or radiological incident evacuation planning in the area around RAF Lakenheath in the past 24 months?

In its response, Suffolk County Council said:

Suffolk County Council and the Suffolk Resilience Forum have neither implemented nor made any changes to the nuclear and/or radiological incident evacuation planning in the area around RAF Lakenheath in the past 24 months.

The Canary put the disclosure to Suffolk County Council, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the USAF.

Suffolk County Council and the USAF did not respond.

An MOD spokesperson told the Canary:

It remains a long-standing UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.

‘Completely unacceptable’ for council to be left ‘flying blind’

BASIC describes itself as:

an independent, non-profit think tank whose mission is to safeguard humanity and Earth’s ecosystem from nuclear risks and interconnected security threats, for generations to come.

BASIC policy fellow Dave Cullen told the Canary:

Suffolk’s current Radiation Emergency Plan applies to nuclear weapons in transit, rather than the weapons in storage at Lakenheath.

Although there are some overlapping risks and accident scenarios, the planning arrangements specifically envisage the council being kept in the loop by the MOD’s Joint Operations Centre (JOC).

The JOC is active during road transport of UK nuclear weapons, but may not be operational at the time of an incident at Lakenheath.

At best the JOC would be receiving information second-hand from US sources at the base.

Without a direct source of information about the nature of an incident or the hazards involved, the council would essentially be flying blind. This is a completely unacceptable risk for local people and emergency responders.

Feature image via screengrab.

By Tom Pashby

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