Nuke Plant Worker Stopped With Explosive

Arizona Nuclear Facility Put On Lockdown For 7 Hours; Officials Say No Threat To Public

(AP)  As authorities tried to understand why a contract worker would bring a pipe bomb to the nation's largest nuclear power plant, one thing was immediately clear: The security worked.

Guards stopped Roger William Hurd, 61, at the entrace to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station when they spotted the bomb. He was detained about a half mile from the containment domes where the nuclear material is stored. Officials pulled his security clearances and placed the facility on lockdown.

"The guards were attentive and alert and took the appropriate action when they identified something suspicious," said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will review the incident.

Doug Walters, senior director of security for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group, said Palo Verde's response was exactly as it should have been.

"We have a checkpoint for this reason," Walters said. "They were able to identify a suspicious item in the truck. I don't know what they could have done differently."

The Department of Homeland Security said there was no known terrorism link to the incident at Palo Verde. Hurd, of Goodyear, Ariz., told investigators he did not know how the bomb got in his truck and was released Friday afternoon.

Authorities described the device as a six-inch capped explosive made of galvanized pipe that contained suspicious residue. Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it was likely homemade.

"If this thing went off in the bed of the truck, it certainly would put a hole in it," Mangan said. "It was rather crude in construction, but it could certainly injure somebody."

Capt. Paul Chagolla with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said the pipe was not hidden. He said Hurd normally drove a motorcycle to work but was in a truck Friday because of the cool weather.

Sheriff's officials rendered the device safe.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said investigators searched Hurd's home but found nothing helpful. Hurd was not arrested, and Arpaio said he expects Hurd to help with the investigation.

Nobody answered the door at Hurd's apartment in Goodyear. Messages left by The Associated Press at numbers listed for Hurd in Arizona and Hartsville, S.C., were not returned as of late Friday night.

Hurd worked as a procurement engineer, responsible for evaluating equipment purchases for the plant, Palo Verde officials said.

He had access to protected areas but had not been in any such area since Aug. 21, said Randy Edington, the chief nuclear officer for plant operator Arizona Public Service Co.

Edington said Hurd would have had access to the reactors but officials did not know the last time he would have been near the reactors.

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 operated normally Friday, McDonald said.

McDonald wouldn't say which company employed Hurd. Like everyone who has access to the plant, Hurd submitted to a background check.

Workers also must pass through two security checkpoints to get inside one of the plant's three containment domes, which house the radioactive nuclear material. One of the checkpoints includes an automated system that sniffs workers for the presence of bomb-making materials, McDonald said.

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.

[nhprophet]

What we need is a President who will show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50+ years. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of the Middle-East, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas of Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to sound economics and one to foreign policy. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he treated as an Air Force Flight Surgeon (Captain) during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I''ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution, Congressman Paul has always demonstrated only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky.

[michellem99-2009]

No way. The Maine Yankee is gone. They have one in Wa state and that is shut down. I have seen news on the 3 Mile Island that happened in 79. I was in Portland ME at the time. They can''t safety stow the spent fuel rods. They showed it on history channel some time ago.

[Krazcarl]

Would you want this trash in your back yard or even on your property unless you didn''t live there and had nieghbores you didn''t care for???

[nhprophet]

My fellow Americans just don''t seem to care that our nation, along with The Constitution upon which it was founded, is being flushed-down the NWO toilet by our nations'' bought and paid for politicians and media. While the Oligarchs warn and insite fear in the sheeple about the prospect of terrorism, they at the same time leave our border wide open, and fund and conduct illegal wars overseas that do nothing but encite the terrorism which their Orwellian Laws like the Patriot Act and The Real ID Act pretend to protect us from. Wake up America! It''s not about protecting you from terrorism, or saving the planet from Global Warming, or any of that other fear-mongering garbage the sold-out, mainstream media feeds you 24/7. It''s about feeding the bankers and the military industrial complex, and facilitating the ruling elite''s ability to ratchet-down control over the American people, placing us into a total control grid where they can surveille, track and control everywhere we go and everything we do. It''s the groundwork for totalitarianism, my friends. It''s New World Order plan of Bush, Clinton, Giuliani, et.al., being executed quite beautifully. You''re a victim of mass mind control--a frog in a pot. In order to cook a frog, you don''t throw him into a pot of boiling water. If you do, he''ll resist and jump-out. What you do instead is, you turn the heat-up REAL SLOW, and by the time the water is boiling he won''t be able to jump out anymore, because it''s too late--he''s already doomed.

[nhprophet]

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
- James Madison

"Those that give give up essential liberties for temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
- Abraham Lincoln

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and those who would exploit our fear for power and their own personal, selfish, cynical gain."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the ability to handle conflict through peaceful means."
- Ronald Reagan

"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must...undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine

"Liberty, when it takes root, is a plant of rapid growth."
- George Washington

"Commerce with all nations. Alliances with none."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Wars are poor chisels for carving-out peaceful tomorrows."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

"Ron Paul doesn''t represent your Father''s school of political thought. He represents your Founding Fathers."
- Me

[draugwolf]

fake story..yeah yeah there so good and alert..what a joke..that place has been repeatedly in the news for having lax security..file this along with fake Fema news conferences among other things LOL...what a freakshow this country has become..and shut up about Ron Paul..he''s a Texan ..enough said

[shreck0071]

The Department of Homeland Security said there was no known terrorism link to the incident.Do you guys mean he is not arabic or muslim??

[shreck0071]

The Department of Homeland Security said there was no known terrorism link to the incident.Do you guys mean he is not arabic or muslim??

[jowand]

Roger William Hurd, 61,

Pleasantly surprising that the "Al Qaeda is comin'''' to getcha" warmongers aren''''t already blaming this on Iran, or Castro, or Chavez.

Posted by brianbwb at 09:20 AM : Nov 03, 2007

You are a paranoid schizo , can''t figure which one if you is saying this though. Help me out, are you from Cuba or Venezuala it would help me diagnose you for a treatment, waterboarding or tazing. I''ll send you both a bill for my services if you give me any back talk.

[brianbwb-2009]

Roger William Hurd, 61,

Pleasantly surprising that the "Al Qaeda is comin'' to getcha" warmongers aren''t already blaming this on Iran, or Castro, or Chavez.

[brianbwb-2009]

"New World Order Fasciscts (mainstream Republicans) and their Socialist comrades in crime (mainstream Democrats). They''''re actually one and the same. There is no real difference between the two parties."

So you see polar opposites, and yet claim no difference? Interesting...

[flipantflaw]

'' ... one way to financial success is to aim for achieving up to 1/33 of a nights pay from at least 33 folk by contributing one''s wares to scores or hundreds or thousands folk each night and soliciting tips ... if rallied around each sick bed are five folk at any one time and a total of 165 folk in a night, then those folk are able to generate and share much song dance skit kit and props with accents and dances with jingles and arts and crafts and knicks and knacks etc etc etc to support the tips applied to that sick bed ... ''

'' ... all my friends blow trillions on baby raping nuclear biological chemical stealth ray warfare and they swear they''ve got it handled, now bend over and kiss the ground i walk on, or i''ll come over there and bend you over ... ''

'' ... if all folk had exactly the same amount of money all the time, then all would be infinitely rich and purchases would be free, and shortages would be built on demand instead of financial accumulation ... ''

'' ... if the folk are not growing too little food, then they are growing too much and poisoning others and need to be spanked, if they are not using too much resource or polluting too much, then they are using too little or polluting too little and need to be spanked, if there''s not too much war then, there is too little and folk need to be spanked ... spankings are forever ... now spank me p p l l e e a a s s e e ... ''

[nolibnoneoco]

Ron Paul is the best and should be the next President , we need to Vote him in before it is to late . Paul is a Giant among us and we should recognise a good man when we see one and hear one . His views are clear , unclutered with namby Pamby s. and we can respect him because he has had the same campaign speach from day one : Bring the Troops home, control spending and cut big government beauros , shut the borders , get IRS out of the pockets of the people and get completly rid of them as they should be gotten rid of . expose the central bank and get it the h out of the pockets by geting rid of them for good and for better. and quit getting into trampling on nations and get the Idea that we should nation build and control as far away as the east is from the west out of our minds. kindle good relations and be friendly to other nations and invite good sound international trade. Not globalism. most of people like him very much when they hear him speak and learn of his record. he is the only sound person running for president on either party. Ron Paul, learn of him and listen to him and you will Like him enought to vote for him because he will make sure you know the truth is alive and well.

[nolibnoneoco]

I think this needs to be checked out very very very v ery carefully. Don''t you . I think any homemade bomb or any attempt at making any bomb should be scruitionized to the max. all this soft stuff smells very bad get hard on this and find out what the h is going on are you listening???????????????????// this is not normal. can you understand a thing about this .find out who what when where why and how how much and how little and do not be a dummy about this , we are letting troops get bloodied up in Iraq and getting ready to send more to the morgue in
Iran so find out first what is going on in our own country. this bomb is a threat to us all . it does not matter that it could not set off a nuclear explosion or not it is not normal and should be treated with great scruitetony . my spelling bad but good sence in this case is being given.

[usprophet]

My fellow Americans just don''t seem to care that our nation, along with The Constitution upon which it was founded, is being flushed-down the NWO toilet by our nations'' bought and paid for politicians and media. While the Oligarchs warn and insite fear in the sheeple about the prospect of terrorism, they at the same time leave our border wide open, and fund and conduct illegal wars overseas that do nothing but encite the terrorism which their Orwellian Laws like the Patriot Act and The Real ID Act pretend to protect us from. Wake up America! It''s not about protecting you from terrorism, or saving the planet from Global Warming, or any of that other fear-mongering garbage the sold-out, mainstream media feeds you 24/7. It''s about feeding the bankers and the military industrial complex, and facilitating the ruling elite''s ability to ratchet-down control over the American people, placing us into a total control grid where they can surveille, track and control everywhere we go and everything we do. It''s the groundwork for totalitarianism, my friends. It''s New World Order plan of Bush, Clinton, Giuliani, et.al., being executed quite beautifully. You''re a victim of mass mind control--a frog in a pot. In order to cook the frog, you don''t throw him into a pot of boiling water. If you do, he''ll resist and jump-out. What you do instead is, you turn the heat-up REAL SLOW, and by the time the water is boiling he won''t be able to jump out anymore, because it''s too late--he''s already doomed.

[usprophet]

What we need is for someone to show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50+ years. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of the Middle-East, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas of Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to sound economics and one to foreign policy. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he treated as an Air Force Flight Surgeon (Captain) during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I%u2019ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution, Congressman Paul has always demonstrated only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky.

[usprophet]

Some people say, "a Republican? I''d never vote for a Republican." Let me remind you folks that Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and who won the war to preserve our Union, WAS himself a Republican. Would you have voted for Stephen Douglas, who was ardently pro slavery, against Lincoln simply because he was a Democrat? Of course you wouldn''t. It''s the person your voting for, and the ideas he or she represents, NOT the party. Ron Paul represents a different Republican Party from the one that Iraq, deficits and corruption have soured the country on. The Republican party has "lost its way," he said recently, during a GOP debate. Like the limited federal government principles espoused by Dwight D. Eisenhower, his school of Republicanism stands for a certain idea of the Constitution that much of the power asserted by modern Presidents has been usurped from Congress, and that much of the power asserted by Congress has been usurped from the States. Though Paul acknowledges flaws in both the Constitution (it included slavery) and the Bill of Rights (it doesn''t go far enough), he still thinks a comprehensive array of positions can be drawn therefrom: against gun control; for the sovereignty of States; and against foreign-policy adventures like the ones currently being played-out in the Mid-East. After ten terms of service as a U.S. Congressman, Ron Paul has demonstrated a consistent track record of adherance to The Constitution unmatched by anyone in either party.

[usprophet]

Ron Paul represents a different Republican Party from the one that Iraq, deficits and corruption have soured the country on. It''s ironic that other GOP candidates are scared to death of his message, BECAUSE his is more conservative than theirs. Being anti-war IS CONSERVATIVE. Another key difference between his message and the others is that he is a strong defender of The Constitution, which protects our civil liberties. The other Presidential candidates, who are mostly NWO Oligarchs, want to erase your liberties. They''ve tried hard to exlude Paul from the spotlight, along with the sold-out, mainstream media (CBS). In late June, despite a life of antitax agitation and pious churchgoing, he was excluded from a Republican forum sponsored by Iowa anti-tax and Christian groups. Ron Paul does not represent your Father''s school of political thought. He represents your Founding Fathers. He stands for a certain idea of the Constitution; the idea that much of the power asserted by modern presidents has been usurped from Congress, and that much of the power asserted by Congress has been usurped from the States. Though Dr. Paul acknowledges flaws in both The Constitution (it included slavery) and its Bill of Rights (it doesn%u2019t go far enough), he still thinks a comprehensive array of positions can be drawn therefrom: against gun control; for the sovereignty of States; and against foreign-policy adventures. His message draws on the noblest traditions of American decency and patriotism.

[usprophet]

Most intelligent people can see right through the mainstream media''s bias against Ron Paul. "What about the polls?", you ask. As someone who''s been in the business, I know you can make a poll result look anyway you want. All you have to do is call or not call on people in a certain demographic group to achieve your desired result. You can see the man has support. He''s won ALL of the viewer call-in polls in ALL of the GOP debates he''s been in. People everywhere are in the street, and on the Net, supporting him like no other. And his campaign chest (17 mil+) is growing daily, and not from huge corporate donations like the other GOP and Democratic party candidates get from defense contractors and bankers, but from grass root supporters who give what little they can afford--$5, $10, whatever. This is a 21st Century political revolution, my friends, and the Oligarchs or on the defensive. Ignore what the media network giants like CBS tell you. They sold-out to the status quo decades ago. This man has some major grass roots support across this country. Millions of Americans believe he is our only hope to restore peace, prosperity and freedom in this country. Presidential candidates with the personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution Congressman, Paul has always demonstrated only come around only once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky. The stakes are too high. The cause of freedom is too important. Get off your couch, put the remote down and support Ron Paul!

[usprophet]

Ron Paul can win the GOP nomination. If he does, I predict a landslide victory in November of 2008. Even the oddsmakers in Vegas aren''t willing to discount his chances. They''re currently giving him 6:1 odds to win against Hitlery if he gets the nomination. Romney, McCain and the globalist, sell-out Giuliani aren''t given anything better than a 25:1 chance of winning if they get the GOP nod. All it takes is for formerly apathetic individuals to get off the couch and nominate him in their local Republican primary or caucus process. Political parties are nothing more than tools. Those who read the manual and use the tools properly will win the nomination for their candidate. For the past 20 years, many good people have stayed at home and accepted whatever candidate they let others select for them. This year, those people are learning how to use their vote to bring about positive and long overdue political change in this country. To make a difference, you must participate in the Republican primary election or caucus process in your county, precinct or district. Nothing else matters. If we do this, we win. If not, we lose. The GOP has been suffering from declining participation for decades. Fewer than 10% of registered voters have ALL the power because they actually participate. Now the remaining 90% must surge to use their vote as a tool for bringing about positive change to our country. The time to act is now. The time for political revolution has come. The time for Ron Paul is NOW!