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Swedish police clueless about explosives near nukes

Dunya News

Police were clues about how material got near Sweden's largest nuclear power plant.

Officers completed a search of the plants premises in the morning, but found no other explosives, police spokesman Tommy Nyman said Friday.Theres no suspect and were trying to find out the motive now ... how it could get in there, and why, he said.Nuclear officials said they had received no threats.Nyman said investigators were analyzing witness statements and security camera footage of the vehicles movements. He declined to give more details.Power utility Vattenfall said the clay-like, fist-sized explosive was found on a fire extinguisher in the forklift during a routine check as it entered the high-security enclosure, where the four reactors are situated, from the plants adjoining industrial area.To me, it looked like the size of a fist, Ringhals spokesman Gosta Larsen said, noting that the small gray mass would have been difficult to spot if the sniffer-dogs had not found it.There was no danger of explosion because the material did not have a detonator or triggering device, police and nuclear officials said.They insisted that even if it had exploded, the damage would have been minimal and would not have affected the plant.Police combed the outer enclosure of the Ringhals plant an area the size of 150 football fieldsbut found no indication that the explosive had been brought in through or over the surrounding fencing, Gith Thedvall, a local police spokeswoman, said.So it must have been brought in by someone who came through the control gates, she said, referring to the gates at the plants outer enclosure.Wednesdays incident prompted Sweden to increase its security alert at the countrys three nuclear plants, including Forsmark and Oskarshamn.Police temporarily cordoned off the area immediately surrounding the forklift, but the find did not cause any other exceptional measures at the plant, officials said.Its serious that someone tries to bring in explosives to a nuclear plant, Larsen said. But it was a really stupid thing to do because theres a 100 percent certainty that it would have been discovered. It would never have made its way through.Critics slammed the plant and Swedens nuclear industry after the incident, saying it shows how vulnerable atomic power stations are.David Persson, a spokesman at the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, said the agency considers the incident serious but doesnt want to draw any conclusions or plan to tighten its guidelines or rules until police have established what actually happened.Were following this closely. There definitely shouldnt be any explosive materials near a nuclear plant, but its positive that they found it, Persson said.The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it was aware of the incident and was in touch with Swedish authorities but declined to comment further.The Swedish government has not commented on the incident, saying that it would wait for the outcome of the police investigation.Ringhals, with more than 3,500 workers, is Swedens largest power plant, producing 28 Terawatt-Hours a year, or supplying around 20 percent of the countrys electricity.It is located near Varberg in Halland, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Swedens second-largest city, Goteborg.