Tony Benn's Armed Police protect Nuclear plants

It was Tony Benn - then Mr Anthony Wedgewood Benn, who responsible for nuclear power as Energy Minister under Harold Wilson introduced powers to provide a separate Civil Nuclear Constabulary, with arms.

The Observer reports Armed Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers are now patrolling Sizewell A and B near Leiston. Nuclear plant security was reviewed, along with plants throughout the country, following 9/11 London bombings on July 7th and 21st 2005. Sizewell B director Mark Gorry, spoke about the policy at a Sizewell A and B stakeholder group meeting on Friday. He said the move was intended to boost confidence and act as a deterrent.

On January 16th 2003, 30 Greenpeace campaigners joined by pretty and petite Daily Mirror reporter, Rosa Prince and photographer Phil Harris, who scaled the dome (pic) containing the pressurised water reactor at the Sizewell B plant to highlight the station's poor security and vulnerability to attack.

At the time when told of the break-in at Sizewell, which houses tons of plutonium waste, Mr Blair called on the Atomic Energy Agency to "learn the lessons".

He said: "I'm sure those in charge of security will look at the situation carefully. There is a continuing threat. That is why this is so important."

Outraged (then) Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin protested: "It's amazing that this can have happened. What is going to be done to make this impossible in the future?"

Greenpeace volunteer Rob Gueterbock speaking from the reactor dome said (what a byline !) , "Sizewell is easier to get into than a Norwich night-club".

Mr. Crispin Blunt the Conservative MP for Reigate quizzed The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Nigel Griffiths about the raid the following day , who nonchalantly replied : "At 6 o'clock yesterday morning, Greenpeace activists illegally entered Sizewell B nuclear site and carried out acts of protest. From the initial incursion at the perimeter fence, site security was at all times monitoring the intruders and their actions. At no time did they enter sensitive areas such as the control room or the reactor building, which remained secure throughout. To avoid unnecessary risk to both protestors and security staff, no action was taken to remove protesters from the roof of facilities. Suffolk constabulary were in attendance..... " there would be an enqury, which would of course be secret .... etc., etc.,

So they have moved quickly then .......

PS John Large, an engineer offered a paper, "The Implications for the Nuclear Industry" on September 11th 2002 , to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) for publication in its scientific journal. His paper spells out in simple engineering terms why an attack on a nuclear installation is a serious threat post-September 11. It never appeared. The IME ultimately rejected the paper, after having allowed it to be covertly distributed around government departments without his knowledge. Three months of consideration of the paper brought no quarrel with his findings, but a simple statement that it was not the sort of material the IME published.

Large was upset about the decision and under the Data Protection Act made an application for files on himself revealing emails and correspondence between the magazine, the HSE, the DTI and government security services. There were written requests not to inform the author of the "discussions", the IME's magazine group received an email from the HSE saying, "We are advised not to publish this paper".

Large believed that for a country on the brink of war with Iraq, and acknowledged to be a terrorist target, it is not healthy to pretend threats does not exist.

He protested to the IME president, John McDougall who, although having colluded in his deception, said he was distressed that the paper was passed to government bodies without the author's permission. "This should not have happened," he said, adding that he had "not been able to discover who was precisely to blame for the distribution around government".