STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Two men were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of attempted sabotage after one of them was stopped at the entrance of a nuclear plant with a plastic bag containing traces of an explosive substance, police and plant officials said.
The incident triggered a security alert at the Oskarshamn nuclear plant and a bomb squad was sent to the scene to investigate.
Police initially said a welder had been taken for questioning after he arrived for work Wednesday with a plastic bag containing traces of triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, an explosive used in the London bombings in 2005.
Police and plant officials later said he had been arrested along with another worker who was stopped at the entrance of the plant. Plant spokesman Roger Bergman said the second man was arrested because "there is some uncertainty about who owns the bag."
Plant operator OKG said the incident did not pose a threat to safety of the plant, located about 150 miles (250 kilometers) south of Stockholm.
OKG spokesman Anders Osterberg said only traces of the substance were found on the bag's handle, suggesting it may have rubbed off from the man's hands.
"The bag contained toiletries, but a test found traces of the substance on the bag's handle," Osterberg told The Associated Press.
He stressed there was no threat to the plant, but added that the incident was being taken seriously.
"It's not something you use at home," he said. "We're not dealing with toys here."
Police Sven-Erik Karlsson said police set up a security perimeter with a 1,000-foot (300-meter) radius around the plant, but workers already inside were not evacuated. The plant was continuing to operate normally.
TATP is highly explosive, and a tiny amount would be enough to blow off a person's hand, said Svante Karlsson, a weapons expert at the Swedish Defense Research Agency.
"It is very unstable, very sensitive to both friction and shocks," he said, adding the substance has no civilian use.
The Oskarshamn plant has three nuclear reactors, which account for about 10 percent of electricity produced in Sweden. Operator OKG is jointly owned by E.ON of Germany and Finland's Fortum. - AP