Prairie Island Nuclear Plant on Temporary High Alert After Nearby Blast

Prairie Island nuclear plant was put on high alert temporarily on Sunday after a man blew up a dump truck about a mile away, authorities said.

According to Goodhue County Sheriff Dean Albers, a Welch Township man used explosives he had ordered through the mail to blow up the truck on his property. “It was quite an explosion,” Albers said.

The man handed over a videotape of the blast, Albers said. As of Sunday night, he had not been arrested or charged with a crime. No one was injured.

Albers didn’t know what kind of explosives the man used but said the blast was heard and felt more than a mile away at the Prairie Island nuclear plant.

Mike Wadley, site vice president of the plant, said the plant was put under heightened security from about 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. until officials could determine what had happened. He said security workers at the plant’s gatehouse “heard a loud noise” and felt the station’s windows rattle around 5 p.m.

The plant returned to normal activity once investigators established that the incident was not connected to the plant, he said.

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..surprised, I was really surprised…” said Goodhue County Sheriff Dean Albers.

There is plenty of wide open country near Red Wing, space enough to do what a person wants to do.

But even out here, there ARE limits.

When you can take a steel box, a dump truck box, turn it into scrap metal, and send it a quarter mile away, that’s a bomb.

Late yesterday afternoon, a tremendous explosion led authorities to a home owned by a 30-year old man. On his acreage they found a large crater and the shredded remains of a dump truck, blown up by a powerful home-made bomb.

He had placed it inside of a barrel inside the bed of an old dump truck and shot it it with a 50 caliber rifle from 300 yards away.

The ‘mix and detonate’ explosives inside that barrel, advertised as ‘Tannerite’ were purchased in bulk over the Internet.

Long distance marksmen buy the compound in 8-ounce canisters, but the suspect told detectives his device contained ‘100 pounds.’ It was powerful enough to rattle windows at Treasure Island Casino and put the nearby Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant on high alert.

“That’s pretty scary. I guess you can get anything over the Internet these days.”

And that’s precisely what concerns Sheriff Dean Albers.

“That you could go ahead and order 100 pounds of this, with the regs out there, this day and age, you’d have thought someone would build a mechanism that would have detected someone’s order this kind of amount.”

Yesterday’s stunt has the 30-year old suspect AND his supplier under scrutiny from a number of local and federal agencies.

If it truly was meant as a goofy stunt, no one’s laughing now.

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UPDATE: Authorities on Monday released the name of the man who blew up a truck near Prairie Island using explosives purchased over the Internet.

Goodhue County Sheriff Dean Albers said Brian Childs, 30, 21000 Prairie Island Blvd., placed about 100 pounds of explosives into the rear of a truck Sunday on his property. A group of people on his property could be seen on a videotape.

The explosives were detonated when the truck was shot by a .50 caliber rifle from about 300 yards away, Albers said. It is unclear who fired the rifle.

It was a relief to learn no one was injured during the incident, he said. But since the material can be purchased over the Web — and possibly fall into the hands of those seeking to do harm — is concerning, Albers said.

“It’s scary to think what somebody else can do” with the explosive, he said.

Debris from the blast, Albers said, was scattered for about a quarter-mile. Officials from the nearby Prairie Island nuclear generating plant went into high alert after security guards there heard and felt the explosion.

No one answered a call placed Monday morning by the R-E to Childs’ residence.

Albers said no criminal charges have been filed against Childs so far, since the incident took place on the man’s private property.

“It’s legal to possess, legal to explode,” Albers said Monday.

But, Albers, president of the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association, said the incident will likely draw attention from lawmakers.

“I wonder if that will remain that way,” he said of the legality of ordering explosives over the Internet.

However, Albers said he and county prosecutors were reviewing possible charges — including felonies.

Investigation into the incident revealed that Childs had purchased the explosive tannerite over the Internet. It was shipped by a common courier like FedEx or UPS, not the United States Postal Service.

Albers said since terrorism alerts were tripped by the blast, officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Postal Service have been investigating the event.

According to a Web site purporting to sell the explosive, the material can be shipped “in low profile packaging boxes to prevent unwanted attention.”

Peter Nowacki, communication programs specialist for the postal service, said it’s unlikely a package of tannerite would find its way through the regular mail.

“We do not ship explosives,” he said, adding that the postal service does not ship packages weighing more than 70 pounds.

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