Exclusive, 02 October 2012
The secretive police unit that infamously employed Mark
Kennedy to infiltrate environmental protest groups has been trying to neuter
anti-nuclear campaigners.
The National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) has been gathering intelligence on activists to “manage the risk” they pose to government plans to build new nuclear power stations.
The unit masterminded Kennedy’s seven-year double life as an undercover police officer posing as an environmental activist. His unmasking in 2011 led to the collapse of a court case against demonstrators he had infiltrated, and a raft of official inquiries.
Now a document released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change reveals that the NPOIU briefed a meeting about “activism and nuclear new build” in Whitehall in June 2011. Present were government officials, three nuclear companies – EDF Energy, Horizon and NuGeneration – and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, a specialist force for guarding nuclear power sites.
Police officers from three areas where new nuclear stations are planned were also involved – Avon and Somerset (Hinkley Point), Suffolk (Sizewell) and North Wales (Wylfa). The purpose of the meeting was “to obtain an agreed understanding of the available intelligence on the risk to the new build programme from environmental activism.”
Those present hoped “to identify any potential gaps in arrangements for managing the risk of direct action or protests at new build sites”. NPOIU’s presentation gave an “overview of the current situation and nature of the threat”.
NPOIU’s presentation has not been released so its conclusions are not known. There have been two protests at Hinkley Point in the last year involving hundreds of people, and a “mass trespass” is planned there on 8 October. There was also a demonstration at Wylfa in January 2012.
The document was obtained by the government monitoring group, Spinwatch, in response to a request under freedom of information legislation. The group’s Eveline Lubbers, who has written a book on corporate and police spying on activists, argued that the boundaries between public and private intelligence gathering were being increasingly blurred.
“NPOIU was set up to sell data on possible threats to clients such as energy companies building power plants, and airline companies involved in the expansion of airports,” she said.
The document released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change can be downloaded here (37KB pdf). This story has also been posted on Spinwatch.
The evidence is there for all to see, I have proof that soil and vegetation samples were taken in UK after Chernobyl.
People were not informed about the contamination.
I have government Documents that identify early death and ICRP dose model as meaningless.
The evidence is there and we still are poisoned by this lawless situation
Posted by: Daniel | 21 October 2012 at 08:01 PM
If the Health Protection Agency, the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency had done what taxpayers are paying them to do, it would not be necessary for NGOs and activists to try to stop the current high levels of poisonous radioactive gases from the Hinkley Point site. Somerset Health Authority published their paper 'Incidence of Leukaemia in young People in the Vicinity of Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station 1959-1986' in the British Medical Journal in 1989. The South West Public Health Observatory's Infant and Perinatal Mortality Briefing records an unprecedented increase in perinatal mortality since 2006, following the installation of vents into the cores of the Hinkley A Magnox reactors. Second and third generations of Somerset children are suffering from heritable genetic mutations caused by their parents' exposure to tritium. If the decommissioning contract for Hinkley Point is not changed, discharges from the Intermediate Level Waste Vaults will cause yet another increase in fatalities all along Somerset coastal communities. The discredited ICRP risk model is still the basis for licensing nuclear sites; it must be changed to the ECRR risk model. That's why NGOs and activists are getting desperate; the police should be supporting them, not harrassing them. Has anyone checked the health records of police stationed at UK nuclear sites?
Posted by: PCAH | 03 October 2012 at 01:55 PM
It is common sense that logically minded decent people would object to the expansion of the UK's Nuclear industry, as it has been proven several times that these
facilities cause increased canters > http://www.ianfairlie.org/uncategorized/new-french-study-on-childhood-leukemias-near-nuclear-power-plants/
They are the most expensive and dangerous way to boil water to turn turbines to generate electricity.
They would not be in business but for massive tax payer funds.
The cost of storing the lethal waste they produce is inestimable.
The multi generational genetic damage they cause is irreversible.
Under EU law 'The precautionary principle' they should banned.
The industry was developed as a means for killing people and causes widespread genetic damage.
There is no sane justification the continuation or expansion of this evil Nu-killer business.
Posted by: Toby Hall | 03 October 2012 at 10:53 AM