Bomb in truck causes scare at largest nuclear plant in US (Roundup)

Nov 3, 2007, 9:40 GMT

Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the nation\'s largest nuclear power plant, where security officials detained a contract worker with a small pipe bomb in the back of his pickup truck on 02 November 2007. EPA/RICK SCUTERI

San Francisco/Phoenix, Arizona - The country's largest nuclear power plant was placed on lockdown Friday after security guards found a bomb in the car of a worker entering the facility, the plant's operator said Friday.

Guards discovered the capped metal pipe as the contract employee arrived for work at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Plant. As a precautionary measure, the operators instituted a lockdown that prevented anyone from entering or leaving.

Police in the Maricopa County sheriff's office were questioning the suspect, but no charges had been filed as of Friday afternoon.

Jim McDonald, a spokesman for the Arizona Public Service which operates the plant, said that security officials carried out a full sweep of the massive plant during the lockdown and that no further devices had been found. He said the lockdown was due to be lifted later Friday, he said.

The plant also declared a 'notification of unusual event,' which is the lowest of four emergency plan event classifications. Authorities later confirmed that the pipe was 'a credible explosive device.'

The bomb was lying in plain sight of plant security guards, mark Fallon, an APS spokesperson, said in broadcast remarks.

'Our security personnel acted cautiously and appropriately, demonstrating that our security process and procedures work as designed,' said Randy Edington, APS executive vice president and chief nuclear officer in a statement. 'These actions are clearly in line with our goal of ensuring the health and safety of the public and our employees.'

Government regulators said security precautions at Palo Verde had worked.

'From what we've seen, the security guards were alert and attentive and took appropriate actions when their suspicion was aroused,' said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the region.

All of the more than 100 US nuclear plants were 'at a normally high level security' after Friday's incident, Dricks said from Arlington, Texas.

With a combined electricity production capacity of about 3,900 megawatts, the three reactors serve some 4 million homes mainly in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.