Posted on 11/02/2007 11:28:54 AM PDT by yorkie
PHOENIX (AP) The nation's largest nuclear power plant was put on lockdown Friday after a contract worker entered the facility with something that security was "not comfortable with," a spokesman said.
Security officials detained the worker at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station and were conducting an investigation. The incident 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.
Officials did not say what the worker brought to the plant. There was no threat to the public, said Palo Verde spokesman Jim McDonald.
Palo Verde, operated by Arizona Public Service Co., 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.
A pipe bomb? Not terrorism related?
I dunno. Maybe it’s just me. But if someone brings a pipe bomb to my office I’m not gonna ask him what his hobby is.
Badger, don’t bogart! ;o)
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places .
I had to re-read your name 8 times to figure it out. LOL! My eyes aren’t what they used to be.
Well, *I* check my vehicle every day before I get in it. I check the tires, underneath and I usually check under the hood a few times a week for things out the ordinary.
I’m a little paranoid about things like that though, and I take a different path to work everyday.
And, every so “often” my car is pulled to the side and inspected.
So, this could have been merely a random check of the guy’s truck, and it MIGHT have been a planted device as a dry run too.
I have to say something here. Some folks I’ve run into on the internet in the past few years make these noises about “Terrorists don’t want to go after ME, I’m nobody”. Or people who work in certain industries who would think they couldn’t POSSIBLY be a target.
Turns out, ANYONE can be a target — because they can just be a mule and not even KNOW it. I’ve got to assume the guy isn’t lying, and really doesn’t know how something got in his truck, especially if he works there.
Why on Earth would someone deliberately (when being a worker in such a place and understanding the rules) stick a device into a vehicle that is going to be found?
So.. innocent til proven guilty. IN the mean time, I THINK everyone should be more wary of things, don’t you?
Doesn’t everybody keep pipe bombs in their lunch boxes?..........
Some years ago, pre-9/11, I had occasion to work at the local nuke plant as an outsider. This was Sherron Harris nuke plant SW of Raleigh.
IMHO,Security was lax.
Others that have recently worked there tell a different story.
Security is armed w/ rifles and even follow you to the bathroom. Can’t be out of their sight.
Lockdown at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
http://michellemalkin.com/2007/11/02/lockdown-at-palo-verde-nuclear-generation-station/
Explosives Send Nuke Plant Into Lockdown
Man Arrested After Device Found In Truck
“I’m thinking that one of these days someone is going to get “lucky” and bypass security and cause a major catastrophe. I say it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN.”
I work in nuclear plants all across the nation. Ive been in dozens of different ones. Trust me, the security in all of the ones Ive been in is very impressive, especially after 9/11.
From what I’ve seen, I don’t agree that a bypass of security causing a major catastrophe is inevitable, or even probable for that matter.
Uh-huh. Mine’s made to look like a big ol’ Thermos!
That’s a good description of what was sitting on Mad Mo’s shoulder, gibbering in his ear.
It happens often in our state. How many of you remember the fires that broke out at Newark Airport and the explosive material that was stolen on 9/11?
How many? No hands?
I didn’t think so.
It happens. Those stories just go....away...
Amen-Ra, Amen-Ra
Thanks very much. Didn’t know Michelle was on it already...I should have, but I didn’t.
Appreciate the heads up.
Real Prophets climb mountains to be closer to God.
They don’t crawl into caves to listen to the hissings of The Serpent.
I got the breaking news via email & was going to send it to her ~lol but she was on top of it ;)
I resent the arrest of this innocent man. So he tried to smuggle a pipe bomb into a nuclear power plant! Haven’t we all tried to do that!? Besides, Abdul Rahman Osama bin Halfwit is just another loyal American. I’m sure he had a reasonable explanation for the bomb which will satisfy us all!
She’s great. It’s been a busy day. Did you see the tanker explosion near the chemical plant in UK, the Domino Plant Fire and Explosion, the I-95 crash that shut down New England Thruway...etc.
“......after a contract worker entered the facility ...”
Probably Muhammad ibn Youssef ibn Wahhalabi aka Juan Cortez.
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