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Arizona Nuclear Power Plant on Lockdown; After Security Alert
Topic Started: Nov 2 2007, 05:48 PM (113 Views)
legitlinda
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PHOENIX — Security officials at the nation's largest nuclear power plant detained a contract worker with a small explosive device in the back of his pickup truck Friday, authorities said.
Authorities said it didn't appear to be an act of terrorism.

The worker was stopped and detained at the entrance of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, about a half mile from the containment domes where the plant's nuclear material is stored, plant spokesman Jim McDonald said. Security officials then put the nuclear station on lockdown, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving the facility.

Authorities described the device as a small capped pipe that contained suspicious residue.

Maricopa County Sheriff's Capt. Paul Chagolla said the pipe was not hidden in the truck.

"There's no information to indicate that there's domestic terrorism at hand," Chagolla said.


Click here for video at MyFoxPhoenix.com.

In Washington, the Department of Homeland Security also said there was no known terrorism link, and that the FBI and local law enforcement were leading the investigation.

Sheriff's officials rendered the device safe and investigators were interviewing the man, who was originally from South Carolina, Chagolla said.

"Our security personnel acted cautiously and appropriately, demonstrating that our security process and procedures work as designed," Randy Edington, the chief nuclear officer for plant operator Arizona Public Service Co., said in a news release.

The detention was considered an "unusual event" — the lowest of four emergencies the plant can declare, said Jim Melfi, an inspector with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

There was no threat to the public and the station was operating normally, McDonald said.

McDonald wouldn't say which company employed the worker. He said everyone who has access to the plant must submit to a background check.

Workers must pass through two security checkpoints to get inside one of the plant's three containment domes, which house the radioactive material. One of the checkpoints includes an automated system that examines workers for the presence of bomb-making materials, McDonald said.

Palo Verde is the nation's largest nuclear power plant both in size and capacity. Located in Wintersburg about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, the plant supplies electricity to about 4 million customers in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California.


How do they know so quickly that this wasn't an act of terrorism?
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