A University of Utah student has been arrested after threatening to detonate a nuclear reactor on campus if the school’s football team lost to San Diego State.
Salt Lake City police wrote in an affidavit obtained by KSL that the 21-year-old said that “if the football team did not win the game, [she] was going to detonate the nuclear reactor that is located in the University of Utah causing a mass destruction.”
The woman was booked into a Salt Lake county jail on Wednesday for investigation of making a threat of terrorism.
The woman made the threat on social media app Yik Yak. The police affidavit noted that the woman “is aware of where the reactor is located and attends class in the same building where the reactor is housed.”
The reactor is located in the university’s Merrill Engineering Building, and is used in student and faculty research. Police response times to emergencies at the reactor are tested monthly.
The Utes beat San Diego State 35-7 on Saturday, averting the threat of nuclear disaster.
