LATEST STORIES:
Ontario government apologizes for mistaken nuclear alert
The Ontario government has now clarified what happened this morning that led to a province-wide alert concerning the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. It reads:
Earlier today, an emergency alert was issued by the Province of Ontario stating there was a situation at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. The alert was issued in error to the public during a routine training exercise being conducted by the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC). There was no incident at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station that should have triggered public notification. Nor was there ever any danger to the public or environment. Emergency exercises are a critical component of ensuring preparedness for emergency management and response agencies. The PEOC conducts training exercises regularly and there was no intention to notify the public in this instance.
The Government of Ontario sincerely apologizes for raising public concern and has begun a full investigation to determine how this error happened and will take the appropriate steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Many were woken up to the sound of a phone alarm this morning alerting of a potential mishap at the Ontario Power Generation nuclear plant in Pickering.
These emergency messages, that are sent out to all Ontarians are controlled by the Provincial Government and many politicians tonight are calling for an investigation into how such a mistake could happen.
Ontario’s Chief of Emergency Management told CHCH News today that they have a bank of pre-written messages ready to be sent out in case of emergencies and it was one of those that was mistakenly sent out today. He says it’s common that staff practice putting pre-scripted messages into the system to alert the masses quickly when needed.
