Arizona nuclear plant normal after pipe bomb event

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters) - The Palo Verde nuclear power plant, the largest in the United States, was sealed off for much of Friday after security guards found a pipe bomb in a worker's pickup truck as he tried to enter the facility, officials said.

The lock-down of the plant was lifted on Friday afternoon.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said it appeared that an engineer, who tried to enter the plant with a pipe bomb in the bed of his pickup truck early Friday morning, was not planning to explode the device.

The investigation into the incident continues, but it looked as if the engineer, who had worked at Palo Verde as a contractor for a year, wasn't a terrorist, said Capt. Paul Chagolla, .

The engineer had access to sensitive areas of the plant and was detained Friday by the sheriff's office and his apartment was searched.

The result of the search was not yet known.

The pipe bomb was removed from Palo Verde, which is located about 50 miles west of Phoenix.

"There is no threat to the plant," at any time Friday, said Jim McDonald, spokesman for Arizona Public Service, which operates Palo Verde. He added that the public was not in danger.