Deputy: Smoke flare likely nuke plant scare cause

WINTERSBURG, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities say a device that caused the entrance to a nuclear power plant west of Phoenix to be closed appears to be a smoke flare.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Brian Lee says the device was found on the floorboard of an employee’s car at a security checkpoint a mile from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station at about daybreak today. At first glance it looked like a stick of dynamite, so plant security closed the checkpoint to traffic as a precaution.

Power plant operations weren’t affected and the checkpoint has been reopened.

The employee is being questioned but Lee says she has not been arrested.

A sheriff’s bomb squad will take the device to a safe area and detonate it.