Nuke Worker Didn't Know He Had Pipe Bomb

Arizona power plant back to normal after lockdown
By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 3, 2007 8:10 AM CDT
Nuke Worker Didn't Know He Had Pipe Bomb
The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station as seen from the main road two miles from the main entrance after a contract employee attempting to enter the facility was caught at a security checkpoint with an explosive device causing a lockdown of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station Friday, Nov. 2,...   (Associated Press)

Roger W. Hurd, a nuclear plant engineer detained yesterday after a pipe bomb was found in the bed of his truck, told Arizona police that he doesn't know how the 6-inch-long device got there. The discovery of the bomb sparked a lockdown of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the largest such facility in the US, reports the Arizona Republic.

Hurd, a 61-year-old contract worker who said he usually drives a motorcycle to work, was stopped at the first of many checkpoints, indicating that plant security "worked the way it should have worked," according to a plant officer. The device would have affected a 20-foot radius, and authorities see no indication that terrorism is involved. Such low-level threat events are said to occur "every few days" at power plants across the country. (More Roger W. Hurd stories.)

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