Arizona nuclear plant on lockdown

[swag]

Source: USA Today

PHOENIX (AP) — Officials put the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station on lockdown Friday after a contract worker entered with something that security was "not comfortable with," a spokesman said.

The station was operating normally and there was no threat to the public, said Palo Verde spokesman Jim McDonald.

McDonald said the security officials put the station on lockdown Friday morning.

Jim Melfi, an inspector with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said an "unusual event" has been declared at the facility. This is the lowest of four emergency categories that the plant can declare


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-02-az-plant_N.htm

[swag]

1. Now updated. Pipe bomb?

PHOENIX (AP) — The nation's largest nuclear power plant was put on lockdown Friday after a contract worker entered the facility with a small capped pipe that contained suspicious residue, authorities said.

The worker was stopped and detained at the entrance of the plant, said U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Victor Dricks. Security officials then put the nuclear station on lockdown, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving the facility.

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.

There was no threat to the public and the station was operating normally, said Palo Verde spokesman Jim McDonald.

[MADem]

5. What kind of "pipe." PEACE pipe, with that kinda 'residue' or bomb pipe? nt

[phantom power]

2. Gun? A fair number of people carry around these parts.

[woodsprite]

4. OK, so WHY did they let him in with it? They were "security", they should do their job. n/t

[MADem]

3. Not comfortable with? WTF does THAT mean?

You didn't like the cheese on his sandwich? He was carrying a suitcase nuke? A nekkid picture of the plant manager's wife? A fashion disaster? Showing too much hairy belly or buttcrack in the workcenter?

What?? What??

Good ole USA Today--give ya nuttin' but an armload o'FEAR!! Terra! Terra! Live near a nuke power plant? Ooooh, get nervous!! Live in AZ? Get terrified, now!

[maddezmom]

6. AP: small explosive device found in truck

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.

The worker was stopped and detained at the entrance of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, said U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Victor Dricks. 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.

Capt. Paul Chagolla with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said sheriff's officials have rendered the device safe and that investigators were interviewing the worker.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_on_re_us/nuclear_plant_lockdown;_ylt=Ahe.QQMZOgDYVFoJceUmo6JvzwcF

[Virginia Dare]

7. Leftover fireworks from July 4th?...n/t

[maddezmom]

8. kind of what I was thinking

:shrug:

[Virginia Dare]

10. Stupid move on that person's part..

I once knew of somebody (friend of a friend) who was working on a top-secret military site and accidentally left his video camera in the trunk of his car. That got him a felony charge. He would have gone to jail for a long time, but his wife "knew" people.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. Drug stash?

Could be any number of things considering the minimal amount of information given.

[NorthernSpy]

22. fireworks, parts for a home-built rocket -- it could be anything...

Me, I'm not going to freak out just yet.


There could be an innocent explanation for this.

[ChazII]

23. Fire works are illegal in AZ. n/t

[PittPoliSci]

26. they are in pennsylvania too, but everyone still has them.

[stillcool]

12. reminds me of these guys...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06110/683609-57.stm
No one claims $500,000 stash in truck
Thursday, April 20, 2006
By Cindi Lash, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When security guards at the Beaver Valley Power Station discovered a bag containing thousands of dollars in a tractor-trailer cab, one of the vehicle's occupants told them his boss planned to use the cash to buy a truck.
It must have been some truck.

-------------
The truck driver and passenger, whose names were withheld but who are from Texas, were released without charges because no apparent crime had been committed.

State police were investigating to determine who owns the money and how it got into the tractor-trailer. If no one comes forward to claim legitimate ownership of the money, police said, they will begin proceedings for forfeit of the cash to the government.

"I wanted to know, why is somebody running around with that amount of money when they're not in a Brink's truck?" said Shippingport police Sgt. R.N. Davis Jr., who pulled the truck over after it left the power plant in Beaver County.

Investigators also notified the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, but said they do not believe the money or truckers are linked to workers or activities at the plant.

"Most likely, they were just between runs," said Trooper Jonathan Bayer. "The investigation is continuing, but there is no indication that there is any connection to the power plant."

The truckers worked for a company hired by San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., which is performing construction work and replacing equipment at the plant, said Richard Wilkins, spokesman for plant owner First Energy Nuclear Operating Co.
-------------------------------
The white semi-truck and empty flatbed trailer pulled up to the plant entrance about 4:15 p.m. Plant security officers told them every vehicle entering the plant must be searched and obtained permission to do so, police said.
In the search, the officers found a green, blue and black duffel bag with a padlock in the sleeper berth of the cab, Trooper Bayer said. The truckers didn't have a key for the lock, so guards cut it off and spotted cash inside, he said.

The truckers said the money wasn't theirs and they didn't know how it got there, Trooper Bayer said. In court papers filed to obtain a search warrant, state police said one of the truckers told security officers that "it was their money and he was going to buy a truck with it."

But when the security workers called the truckers' boss in Houston, he also said he knew nothing about the money. The security officers called police, but the truckers backed out of the plant and drove off.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Police broadcast a description of the truck and Sgt. Davis pulled it over after spotting it on Route 168 south, near the Shippingport Bridge. He said the truckers were polite, but the passenger had no identification and said it had been stolen from the truck the night before.

[Eurobabe]

11. Blackwater contractor gone bad?

:shrug:

[Virginia Dare]

13. Could be a set-up for a whistle blower?..

the whole thing sounds pretty sketchy.

[Eurobabe]

14. Darth is out on the bomb Iran circuit today, TERRA right on time. n/t

[Virginia Dare]

15. And Condi just got subpoenaed and Mukasey looks like he's going down..

what impeccable timing, no?

[Eurobabe]

16. I heard that Cheney ordered TS Noel too!

:rofl:

[Virginia Dare]

19. He probably would if he could!..

:evilgrin:

[kestrel91316]

17. Hm. Marijuana pipe? Crack pipe?

kestrel thinks it was NOT a bomb.

[swag]

18. Pipe bomb of an unknown size

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-02-az-plant_N.htm

A pipe bomb was found in the truck of a contract worker when security staffers stopped him at an entrance to the nation's largest nuclear power plant Friday, a plant spokesman told USA TODAY.
The incident occurred at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix.

"The sheriff's department has classified it as a pipe bomb," Jim McDonald, a Palo Verde spokesman, told USA TODAY. "How big and how powerful — I don't know."

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, and the Associated Press reported the worker was taken into custody.

[sarcasmo]

20. Is this the incident Bush needs to practice Martial Law?

[nealmhughes]

21. How odd, my son called me from Arizona this morning. He works at Palo Verde right now and didn't

say a word about it. He is working midnights, so he must have not even been at work when it happened. As for "lockdown," most people don't leave or enter a nuclear power plant except for shift changes or deliveries, or the food run at lunch.

When I was at Fort Calhoun a guy put a cardboard cutout of a pistol and wrapped it in tinfoil in a guy's lunchbox as a "joke." The guy got a bunch of pistols pointed at him and was spread eagled on the floor in about 1 sec after the x-ray scan began.

That one was an "unusual event," too. Site Area Emergency is the only one peeps need to worry about.

[lonestarnot]

24. All is well that ends well.

[me b zola]

25. Check out this link from cnn:

updated 5:15 p.m. EDT, Fri November 2, 2007

Nuclear plant employee stopped with explosive device

(CNN) -- A contract employee at the largest nuclear plant in the nation was stopped at a plant entrance Friday with a "relatively small" explosive device in his truck, officials said.

~snip~

The employee was on his way to work at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Wintersburg, Arizona, at about 6 a.m. when a routine security sweep at a checkpoint found the item, according to Jim McDonald, spokesman for Arizona Public Service Company, which owns the plant.

~snip~

"MCSO bomb squad tests later determined that the capped pipe was a credible explosive device," APS said in a written statement.

The man was detained and is in the custody of the sheriff's office.

The device is not something the employee would have used in his work, which deals with computers and software, sheriff's spokesman Paul Chagolla said.


~more at link, including video~
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/02/az.nuclear.plant/index.html

Strange days, indeed.

[PittPoliSci]

27. crack pipes can explode.

if they're full of gasoline...uh...what was i getting at?

oh yeah...

i'm not convinced. timing seems a bit convenient.

[me b zola]

29. Yeah, the timing is, uh, a bit worrisome

...and how quickly officials dismissed this, practically falling over themselves to explain this away as 'nothing to see here'. Here's one of my favorite official statements from the article:

The law enforcement official involved in the case said it appeared to have been tossed into the bed of the pickup "more or less at random," and could have been thrown there by someone else -- a possibility police have not ruled out.

Yeah, I'm sure that most people toss their pipe bombs randomly in the back of their truck bed or the vehicles of their friends. Wait, most people don't have pipe bombs floating randomly around? Hmmm.


The drumbeat to attack Iran certainly has many of us suspicious of strange domestic occurrences that could potentially help the administration with their selling of another deadly war lie. A small bomb going off at a nuclear plant would not have to do much damage or present a threat to the general population for it to be an effective propaganda tool for cheney et al. Just saying.

[PittPoliSci]

31. You're entirely correct.

And I agree.

[olddad56]

28. probably found road flares in his truck.

[me b zola]

30. Did you read the link I provided or view the video at the link?

:shrug: