Suspicious Package Triggers Lockdown At Palo Verde Nuclear Power Station

November 2, 2007

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The Palo Verde Nuclear Power Station has been locked down for investigation, however officials say there’s no immediate threat to public safety. The incident this morning is being described as an “unusual event,” which is the lowest of four emergency categories the plant can declare.

A contract worker with the Nuclear Generating Station triggered the lockdown when he showed up with a suspicious package inside his vehicle, authorities said.

The incident reportedly involves a suspicious-looking pipe inside the worker’s truck.

“This is not a threat to the public,” said Jim McDonald, a spokesman for plant operator Arizona Public Service Co. “If it had the potential to be, the security guards stopped it.”

Security guards working for the utility armed with automatic weapons check identification and search under the hood of vehicles entering the plant.

“I don’t know what they saw or why they were uncomfortable with it,” McDonald said.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Doug Matteson said the worker was stopped because of a suspicious package in the vehicle.

Sheriff’s deputies were called, but McDonald could not say whether the worker was taken into custody.

The contract worker does not specifically work at Palo Verde but has been on site to do a job that the plant contracted with another company, 12 News reports. The inspection checkpoint is at least a half mile from the actual plant.

More than 3,000 people are working at the plant now, including several hundred contract workers brought in to help with upgrades on one of the three nuclear reactors.

UPDATE:

Preliminary test indicate an explosive device has been found in a vehicle trying to enter the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant west of Phoenix.

Officials from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office tell ABC15 a contract worker who has access to the plant drove through the entrance gate, but was stopped when security spotted a device that looked like a pipe bomb.

Investigators say the man usually drives a motorcycle to work, but today took a white truck to the plant.

Crews are now analyzing the device, and have detained the man.

Schools in the area were briefly locked down, but have since been released to regular schedules.

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