Explosive materials found near nuclear plant in Sweden

  Eyewitness NewsSTOCKHOLM -- Security was ramped up at Sweden's three nuclear power plants Thursday after explosives were found on a truck at the southwestern Ringhals atomic power station. Police said they were investigating possible sabotage.

Bomb sniffer dogs detected the explosives during a routine check Wednesday afternoon by security staff while the truck was in the power plant's industrial area near its high security enclosure. Police declined to describe the amount or type of explosive material found.

Bomb technicians said the material lacked a detonating device, meaning there was no danger of an imminent explosion.

Four nuclear reactors are at Ringhals, 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Sweden's second-largest city, Goteborg. The plant is controlled by energy companies Vattenfall and E.ON.

Police spokesman Tommy Nyman said officers were investigating possible sabotage but had no suspects. He said the driver of the truck had been unaware of the explosives placed in the vehicle and was not suspected of being involved.

"An outsider has obviously placed them on the truck," Nyman said. "We're talking to the truck driver and are trying to map out her movements within the (Ringhals) premises throughout the day."

The area surrounding the truck was evacuated and cordoned off.

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority said the explosive material was found on the truck "en route from the Ringhals industrial park into a protected area ... and did not enter the facility."

Ringhals officials said an explosion on the truck would not have caused "any serious damage" to the site but did not elaborate on how they came to that assessment.

Sweden has 10 nuclear reactors at the country's three power plants: Ringhals, Forsmark and Oskarshamn - providing about half of the country's electricity.

The country also has a four-stage security risk scale for the plants, with four representing the highest security alert.

Ringhals was rated at one - situation "normal" - but after the incident, the nuclear authority said it raised the security alert by a notch to 2, on a four-grade scale, meaning that security has been increased at all the plants.

In 1980, the Nordic country decided to phase out the use of nuclear energy after Swedes voted for that in a referendum. But two years ago, the center-right government overturned that decision, citing the lack of viable long-term environmentally friendly alternatives, a move that paved the way for old reactors to be replaced by new ones.

Security at Swedish nuclear plants has also been criticized.

In 2010, Greenpeace activists managed to break into the Forsmark power plant site by climbing a fence and staging a demonstration there. Twenty-nine Greenpeace activists from Germany, Poland, Britain, France and the Nordic countries were convicted and fined.

The Swedish nuclear industry has also come under fire for the lack of some safety precautions while operating the reactors. Last year, a fire broke out in a Ringhals reactor after the staff had left a vacuum cleaner in the containment building.

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Man found with suspicious materials near Pentagon

  By ERIC TUCKERARLINGTON, Va. -- A man carrying a backpack containing what authorities said were suspicious materials briefly fled police Friday before he was detained in the middle of the night near the Pentagon.

The man was discovered inside Arlington National Cemetery after 1 a.m., several hours after the cemetery had closed, and was taken into custody after being uncooperative. He was in custody but has not been charged with anything. Authorities believe he acted alone and no one else was with him.

The man was identified as Yonathan Melaku, 22, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Ethiopia, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Investigators and bomb-sniffing dogs were sifting through his family's home in Fairfax County, Va.

The man had an unknown quantity of a substance that appeared to be ammonium nitrate in a bag, according to another law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity. Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound that is widely used in fertilizers and can be used in explosives with the correct concentration.

Nothing else was found on the man that could have triggered an explosion, the official said.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. Tests were being done to determine the substance and the exact concentration, the second official said.

During the course of the investigation, officers searched the man's nearby car, a red 2011 Nissan that was parked in the bushes near a Pentagon parking lot, but found nothing suspicious inside, said Brenda Heck, special agent in charge of the counterterrorism unit of the FBI's Washington field office.

She would not disclose the materials inside the backpack, but said it contained no explosives.

In another incident earlier this week, a motorist found with a gun and what appeared to be a suspicious package near the Pentagon was taken into custody.

Friday's investigation snarled rush hour traffic as police closed off roads around the Pentagon.

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Sullivan reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor, Jessica Gresko and Karen Mahabir contributed to this report.

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