EMERGENCY ALERT INVESTIGATION
By Kirk Winter
A cell phone alert woke many Ontarians on Sunday, January 12 at 7:23am. Some, like myself, rolled over, clicked received and went back to sleep.
At 9:11am, my phone woke me up again and this time I was sufficiently coherent to actually read what was on my screen.
The 7:23 message was chilling: “This is a Province of Ontario emergency bulletin which applies to people within 10 kilometers of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. An incident was reported at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. There has been NO abnormal release of radioactivity from the station and emergency staff are responding to the situation. People near the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station DO NOT need to take actions at this time. Remain tuned to local media for further information and instructions.”
The 9:11 message was clear: “There is NO active nuclear situation taking place at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. The previous alert was issued in error. There is no danger to the public or environment. No further action is required.”
I cannot imagine what some people had experienced during the time from 7:23 to 9:11. For those of my age who grew up being told to shelter under desks to survive a nuclear war, these kinds of public pronouncements were the nightmare fuel of our youth. Local police and media outlets reported numerous panicked Inquires as no one at Pickering Nuclear was apparently answering the phone during this nerve-wracking 75 minutes.
At a hastily-called press conference early Sunday afternoon, Pickering Nuclear, and its owner the Government of Ontario, reported that practice emergency drills had been going on at the facility when the message was sent out in error.
Officials responsible for the nuclear facility were unable to answer any of the following questions posed by various media outlets, causing significant public trepidation:
Who ordered the message to be transmitted at 7:23am?
Why was the message sent across the province? People from as far away as Windsor and Ottawa reported on-line that they had received the warning.
Why did it take so long to identify the message as an error when various Pickering Nuclear employees working at the facility reported to supervisors immediately upon receiving the message on their personal cell phones of the supposed “incident?”
Why was there media silence from Pickering Nuclear for those 75 minutes when employees have reported to various media outlets that they knew within minutes the “incident” message was a false alarm?
How reliable is the actual Emergency Alert system that failed so miserably on January 12?
Some online media outlets have suggested that the initial message from Pickering Nuclear was received with a higher level of anxiety when seen against the backdrop of the United States/Iran standoff in the Middle East.
Some Ontarians spoke online Sunday about the scare that panicked the island of Hawaii in January of 2018 when someone sent a message out telling islanders to prepare for the imminent impact of nuclear missiles. That message, after causing a significant and unnecessary level of anxiety, was retracted and the individual who sent it was fired.
The Pickering Nuclear Generating Station and the Government of Ontario have promised an inquiry into the incident that will hopefully answer many of the questions that the greater public has posed regarding this frightening incident.