Lost couple cuts chain to enter nuclear plant property

DELTA, Pa. — A couple who got lost in Pennsylvania while driving to New York entered the property of a nuclear plant by cutting a chain at a gate in a quest to get back on the right road, authorities said.

The Chesapeake, Va., couple was driving from Baltimore on Friday night when they got onto an access road at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, owned by Exelon. The driver told police he didn't see two "No trespassing" signs when he cut the chain on the gate, The York Daily Record reported.

Exelon spokesman Krista Merkel said the couple never posed a threat to the plant, and security was monitoring them the entire time they were on plant property.

"It seemed they inadvertently made it to our property and were trying to find their way back out," Merkel said. "They thought the only way they could get back was to cut the fence."

Police initially said, after consulting with security staff, that the man and woman appeared to have made it to a security-sensitive area where radioactive material is transferred from the main power plant. If the couple had gone inside a nearby outbuilding, the plant would have been placed on lockdown, and there was a "possibility of lethal force being used," authorities said in court documents.

But Merkel said Saturday that the couple hadn't made it to any areas where radioactive materials are transferred or stored, and they didn't make it past security officers who constantly monitor all sides of the plant. She said the couple was "very cooperative" and waited until police arrived.

The couple was charged with trespassing. The woman was also charged with possession of a controlled substance. Police said she had a small metal pipe that smelled like marijuana.

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