An emergency alert that woke thousands to warnings of an unspecified “incident” at a GTA nuclear power plant Sunday morning was sent out by “human error” during a training exercise, Ontario’s provincial government says. The alert, which was sent to cellphones, radios and televisions across Ontario through the province’s emergency reporting system around 7:30 a.m., was meant to be sent to an internal list, the office of Premier Doug Ford told the Star.In a statement, Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said the alert was “issued in error to the public during a routine training exercise being conducted by the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre,” adding: “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.“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.”The first mass alert — which said emergency staff were responding to a situation at the plant but said “there has been NO abnormal release of radioactivity” — was followed by a second about two hours later. The follow-up clarified there was no active emergency at the plant and that the previous alert “was issued in error.” “There is no danger to the public or environment. No further action is required,” the second alert read. Still, the false alarm sparked anger and calls for answers after it led to a stressful Sunday morning for residents used to the living close to the plant.Ian Portsmouth said that when he was woken up by the alert on his cellphone, which was on his bedside table, he at first assumed it was an Amber Alert before he read further and saw the words “Pickering” and “nuclear faci ...
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