Bosses at Dungeness B say they are on their guard against “madmen” unleashing nuclear terrorism.

American President Barack Obama had last Friday warned about the risk of so-called Islamic State fanatics stealing materials from power plants to make a dirty bomb or even setting off a ready-made device.

He said at the global Nuclear Security Summit: “There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they would certainly use it to kill as many innocent people as possible. It would change our world.”

A spokesman for the Marsh power plant’s owners, EDF Energy, this week said: “We place our highest priority on the safety and security of the public, its staff, buildings and installations.

“We maintain regular contact with the police and other appropriate agencies and regularly review and adjust our security procedures across our sites.

“For obvious reasons we cannot discuss the detail of what security precautions we have in place.”

The company said that concerning its nuclear sites it is in close contact with its safety and security regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation.

This is an independent organisation responsible for approving the level of security on its sites and EDF said it would continue to work with them and act upon any instructions or recommendations.

The spokesman said: “In order to maintain the highest standards of security we do not discuss operational details but like all civil nuclear facilities in the UK we have detailed security arrangements in place.”

The company says that the Civil Nuclear Constabulary are deployed at all its nuclear sites to beef up already strong security arrangements at all civil nuclear power stations.

This has been allowed through the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. These officers work alongside existing security teams at each stations.