New Jersey’s Department of Energy, Department of Environmental Protection and related officials have debunked a recent theory about radioactive material and the mysterious drones people have reported seeing above the state.
Belleville, New Jersey, mayor Michael Melham suggested Tuesday during an appearance on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” that the drones are being deployed as part of a governmental search for radioactive material that was reported missing earlier this month.
“There here is an alert that’s out right now that radioactive material in New Jersey has gone missing,” he added. “On Dec. 2, there was a shipment, it arrived at its destination, the container was damaged — and it was empty. So, potentially, we’re looking for that.”
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission did issue an alert earlier this month about medical equipment containing such material for use in cancer screenings getting “lost in transit” on Dec. 2 after being shipped from the Nazha Cancer Center in Newfield for disposal.
The state Department of Environmental Protection told ABC News on Tuesday that the “very low-level radiation source” has already been “relocated,” however, while Dr. James Dalzell at the cancer center added the material was only briefly misplaced by FedEx. The New Jersey Department of Energy said drones were not used to search for this radioactive material, as Melham suggested.
The ongoing mystery surrounding drones in his state and others, meanwhile, has yet to be fully cleared up.
Melham said Tuesday there was “an unprecedented briefing” with every mayor and state legislature member in New Jersey last week, which provided “very little information” about these drones, which have been sighted across the state since mid-November.
“Since then, information has not been forthcoming, and it’s this lack of transparency, in my opinion, that’s doing nothing but fueling conspiracy theories online,” he continued.
“I can tell you what it’s not,” Melham added. “We know for a fact that it’s not little green men, and more than likely it’s not a foreign adversary, because they would be able to figure out how to turn off the blinking lights. These drones are huge.”
He said a fellow New Jersey mayor reported seeing “six-foot drones hovering over his house” on a call Monday with the White House. “Yet they continue to tell us we don’t know what we’re talking about, it’s misidentification.”
Melham conceded that while “certain there’s some misidentification probably going on, but I can assure you, we are seeing drones in New Jersey all over the place.”
Earlier this week, Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) posted a video of what local law enforcement said were mysterious drones, but later said he consulted with experts and determined the objects were likely regular aircraft.
After weeks of reported sightings, an FBI investigation and an acknowledgement from the Pentagon about the drones, President Joe Biden addressed the matter himself, saying it was “nothing nefarious apparently, but they’re checking it all out.”
In a joint statement Monday, the FBI, FAA, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense said that the more than 5,000 sightings over the past few weeks are commercial, hobbyist or law enforcement drones, or aircraft, helicopters or stars.
At a press briefing Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder reiterated that most of the estimated 8,500 drones flown daily in the U.S. are “going to be commercial drones used in things like architecture, engineering, farming or they could be used for law enforcement,” as well as for recreational or hobby purposes, he said.
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When asked why the House Intelligence briefing Tuesday by the FBI and CIA was classified “if these are just hobbyist drones,” Ryder replied, “I’d have to refer you to Congress on that.”
“Again, you know, sharing as much information as we can here,” he continued. “I don’t have the briefing in front of me, so I can’t tell specifically what aspects are classified or not.”