“A routine training exercise” is being blamed for a troubling emergency alert being erroneously sent out Sunday morning by the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, east of Toronto.

And the province is promising “a full investigation” about why it happened and has apologized for the incident.

Distroscale

The original alert, which went out to cellphones at 7:30 a.m., warned people within 10 kilometres of the facility, which has been operating since 1971, of an unspecified incident.

But the alert said there was no abnormal release of radioactivity and those near the plant didn’t need to protect themselves.

Ontario Power Generation, which runs the Pickering plant, sent out a tweet about 40 minutes later saying the emergency alert was a mistake and a follow-up alert was sent to cellphones nearly two hours after the original alert.

“There is NO active nuclear situation taking place at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station,” the follow-up alert said.

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“The previous alert was issued in error. There is no danger to the public or environment. No further action is required.”

Ontario’s Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said in a statement Sunday the original alert was issued in error during a routine training exercise by the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC.)

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“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,” said Jones.

“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.”

OPG spokesman Neal Kelly told The Canadian Press there was never any public risk and that there was no radiological event at the plant, but he wouldn’t say who authorized the alert.

“What I can tell you is that we’re working with the province to investigate,” he said.

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Needless to say, Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan was upset.

“Like many of you, I was very troubled to have received that emergency alert this morning,” Ryan tweeted out.

“While I am relieved that there was no actual emergency, I am upset that an error such as this occurred. I have spoken to the province, and am demanding that a full investigation take place.”

Pickering had been scheduled to be decommissioned this year, but the former Liberal government — and the current Conservative one — decided to keep it open until 2024.

It is not the first time a false emergency alarm has made headlines.

In 2018, an employee at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sent the public into panic when he sent out an emergency alert about an incoming ballistic missile and it took 38 minutes before another message was sent to notify people it was a false alarm.

— With files from CP