The Canadian area of Ontario on Sunday excused for mistakingly raising the alert about an occurrence at an extensive nuclear power station near Toronto and accused a practice exercise error.
Angry local mayors commanded an interrogation, stating the emergency message about the falling Pickering plant had created unnecessary anxiety in inhabitants of the locality.
Mobile phone users in one of Canada’s most populous province, Ontario received an alert in a text message at around 7:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT). However, less than an hour later, the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) authority announced the message had been a blunder.
“The warning was issued in mistake to the public during a routine drill exercise,” Ontario’s Solicitor-General Sylvia Jones said in a statement.
“The government of Ontario sincerely apologizes for raising public concern and has begun a full investigation to determine how this error happened.”
The first message announced there had been no abnormal leak of activity from the plant, which is located on the shores of Lake Ontario some 50 km (30 miles) east of downtown Toronto.
Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan stated on Twitter that locals had been very concerned, “I have articulated to the province, and am demanding that a full inquiry take place”.
Toronto Mayor John Tory complained that multiple of the city’s 3 million citizens had been needlessly frightened and also pushed for a probe, citing what he said were “far too many unanswered questions”.
OPG was not immediately available for remarks on this issue.
Human error during a drill exercise was also accused of a disturbance in Hawaii in January 2018 when authorities announced a false alert about an impending ballistic missile attack.
The plant which was established in 1971 has a power-generating capacity of 3,100 megawatts when fully functioning. It is programmed to be shut down in 2024.
“OPG has cautioned everyone that they’re running an unneeded and ageing nuclear station next to Toronto,” said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a program director at Greenpeace Canada.