Tag: nuclear power

Russia Says Ukrainian Drones Target Nuclear Power Plant

Ukraine launched over 100 drones targeting Russian energy infrastructure. One Russian official said that a nuclear power plant was among the targets.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, overnight Tuesday, its forces downed more than 100 Ukrainian drones. The UAVs targeted Russian energy infrastructure over a widespread area.

One of the drones was downed in the Smolensk Region near a nuclear facility. “According to preliminary information, one of the drones was shot down during an attempt to attack a nuclear power facility,” the region’s Governor Vasily Anokhin said. “There were no casualties or damage,” he added.

In the Belgorod Region, Russian authorities reported a drone killed a woman and her 2-year-old child.

Recently, Kiev has stepped up its drone strikes in Russia. Earlier this month, Ukraine launched its largest drone and missile barrage of the war. Among the targets was the TurkStream pipeline, which transports gas from Russia to Turkey.

Moscow typically responds to Ukrainian attacks inside Russia by bombing cities and infrastructure. Following a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia in December, President Putin said, “Whoever and however tries to destroy something in our country, he will face destruction many times larger in his own country and will regret its attempts to do that in our country.”

Additionally, the Kremlin often blames Washington for its role in supplying Kiev with the necessary arms, funding, and intelligence to conduct attacks in Russia.

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New Documents Highlight Drone Sightings Near Nuclear Facilities

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The Black Vault on November 7, 2024, with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, resulted in the release of records highlighting drone incursions over sensitive nuclear installations. The request, identified as FOIA-2025-000142, sought all materials and communications shared with the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) from June 2022 through the end of 2024.

While UFO enthusiasts may have hoped for evidence of extraordinary phenomena, the documents largely revolve around repeated sightings of drones near sensitive nuclear installations.

Nonetheless, these incidents provide an intriguing insight into ongoing challenges relating to these events.

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Nuclear Power Plants Report Massive Uptick In Drone Sightings

The number of drone flyovers of nuclear plants for the entire year nearly doubled in one week, from December 10th to December 17th, according to data provided to The War Zone by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Between Jan. 1 and Dec.10, nuclear facility licensees reported a total of 15 drone events. As of about 1 p.m. Dec., 17, that number had jumped to 26, NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre told The War Zone on Friday in response to our query. While the timeline overlaps with a rash of drone sightings across the country and especially in the New Jersey area – including over military installations and energy infrastructure – it is unclear at the moment what, if any, connection there is to the dramatic increase in suspicious drone events over nuclear facilities.

“…before January 2024, nuclear power plant licensees voluntarily reported flyovers by uncrewed aerial systems, such as drones, to the Federal Aviation Administration; law enforcement (local and the FBI); and the NRC,” McIntyre told The War Zone. “Because reporting was voluntary, our information may not reflect the total number of UAS overflights of nuclear power plants.”

Once a flyover is reported, he added, “the NRC provides the specifics to other agencies for follow-up, including the FBI. The NRC does not investigate this type of activity once it has been reported.”

We reached out to the NRC, FBI, FAA and Department of Homeland Security for more context about these flyovers. We will update this story with any pertinent information provided.

The most recent publicly known drone sightings were over the Public Service Energy & Gas (PSEG) Nuclear Salem and Hope Creek generating stations, located at Lower Alloways Creek Township, in Salem County, New Jersey.

“Yes, drones were seen in the vicinity of Salem and Hope Creek (they’re the same site) last weekend,” NRC spokesperson Diane Screnci told us on Dec. 20. She did not provide a specific date, but a PSE&G spokesperson issued a statement saying that a flyover occurred on Dec 14.

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Why Is The Media Being So Quiet About The Radioactive Material That Has Gone Missing In New Jersey?

Something extremely strange has been happening in New Jersey, but the mainstream media has been eerily quiet about some of the most important threads of this story.  It turns out that an “air restriction alert” banned flights over Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway, New Jersey for “special security reasons” from November 21st through December 26th.

Many people don’t realize this, but counter-terrorism drones have been getting tested at Picatinny for years.  In addition, we have learned that radioactive material was reported missing in New Jersey in early December.  The following comes directly from the official website of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission…

AGREEMENT STATE REPORT – SOURCE LOST IN TRANSIT

The following information was provided by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) via email:

“The licensee reported to NJDEP on December 3, 2024, that a Ge-68 pin source that they sent for disposal has been lost in transit on December 2, 2024. The source is a Eckert & Ziegler model HEGL-0132, with current approximate activity of 0.267 mCi. The shipping container arrived at its destination damaged and empty. The licensee has filed a claim with the shipper. If the source is not located within the 30 days, the licensee will follow-up with a full written report to include root cause(s) and corrective actions.

“This event is reportable under 10 CFR 20.2201(a)(1)(ii).”

New Jersey Event Report ID number: To be determined

THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A ‘Less than Cat 3’ LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL

The big corporate news sources in the United States are saying very little about this.

But others are reporting about this incident.  For example, the following comes from a British news source…

A piece of medical equipment used for cancer scans was shipped from the Nazha Cancer Center in Newfield on December 2 for disposal, but the ‘shipping container arrived at its destination damaged and empty.’

The device, known as a ‘pin source,’ contained a small amount of Germanium-68 (Ge-68) that is used to calibrate a medical scanner’s accuracy. If handled without proper gear, it can cause radiation poisoning.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued an alert for the missing shipment deemed ‘less than a Category 3,’ meaning it could cause permanent injury if mishandled.

A search for this radioactive material is being conducted.

In fact, Belleville Mayor Michael Melham has confirmed that New Jersey state police have issued an alert about the radioactive material that is missing.

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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Releases Report Confirming Radioactive Material Lost in Transit — Shipping Container Arrives Damaged and Empty in New Jersey

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has confirmed that radioactive material was lost in transit earlier this month, heightening fears about public safety and sparking theories about mysterious drone activity in New Jersey.

Officer Lew, a prominent political commentator, highlighted the NRC’s event report during a review of regulatory alerts.

“While looking at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Alerts. I can confirm that there is radioactive material that has gone missing on Dec 2nd, 2024 out of New Jersey. This might be the reason for the drones… just speculation at this point,” he wrote.

The missing material, identified as a Ge-68 pin source manufactured by Eckert & Ziegler, was reported lost by its licensee on December 3, 2024. Shipped for disposal, the container arrived at its destination severely damaged and empty.

According to the NRC’s report, the radioactive source, while classified as “Less than IAEA Category 3,” still poses potential risks if mishandled or exposed for prolonged periods.

According to the report:

AGREEMENT STATE REPORT – SOURCE LOST IN TRANSIT

The following information was provided by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) via email:

“The licensee reported to NJDEP on December 3, 2024, that a Ge-68 pin source that they sent for disposal has been lost in transit on December 2, 2024. The source is a Eckert & Ziegler model HEGL-0132, with current approximate activity of 0.267 mCi. The shipping container arrived at its destination damaged and empty. The licensee has filed a claim with the shipper. If the source is not located within the 30 days, the licensee will follow-up with a full written report to include root cause(s) and corrective actions.

“This event is reportable under 10 CFR 20.2201(a)(1)(ii).”

New Jersey Event Report ID number: To be determined

THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A ‘Less than Cat 3’ LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL

Sources that are “Less than IAEA Category 3 sources,” are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury. Some of these sources, such as moisture density gauges or thickness gauges that are Category 4, the amount of unshielded radioactive material, if not safely managed or securely protected, could possibly – although it is unlikely – temporarily injure someone who handled it or were otherwise in contact with it, or who were close to it for a period of many weeks.

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New Jersey Receives Report Radioactive Medical Device “Lost In Transit”

While everyone, including local, state, and federal authorities, is desperately searching for answers, there has been a notable lack of disclosure regarding what is actually happening in the skies above New Jersey—some of the most restricted airspace in the world.

One theory points to drones equipped with payload sensors designed to detect radioactive material, given ongoing and heightened Al-Qaeda threats on the East Coast. Others believe this could be part of a large psyop aimed at pushing through new drone legislation in Washington, DC. Additional theories suggest that Iranian or Chinese operators may be deploying drones to spark mass hysteria.

Even Washington Post’s Josh Rogin called out the feds for “the lack of disclosure is damaging public trust.” He added it’s time for the feds “to come clean.”

If these really are Defense Department drones doing radiation sniffing for possible dirty bombs, one could understand why they wouldn’t want to admit that & panic people. But at this point, the lack of disclosure is damaging public trust. Time to come clean.

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) December 15, 2024

What may seem like a mere coincidence is worth noting: reports of drone sightings began in mid-November, and on December 2, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission disclosed that a medical device containing radioactive material was “lost in transit” in New Jersey.

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“We Don’t Have Enough…”: Russia Temporarily Limits Exports Of Enriched Uranium To U.S.

In news that will act as a headwind for the U.S.’s re-emerging nuclear industry, it was reported last week that Russia is temporarily restricting enriched uranium exports to the U.S., raising supply concerns for reactors that produce nearly 20% of the nation’s electricity.

Russia provided no details or timeline for its uranium export restrictions in a Friday Telegram statement, though utilities’ advance purchasing likely mitigates immediate effects, Bloomberg wrote in a report on Friday.

Amid global backlash over its war in Ukraine, Russia continues leveraging energy as a geopolitical tool, also cutting gas supplies to Austria—ending a 60-year agreement that fulfills 80% of its demand—citing a legal dispute.

Bloomberg noted that Russia’s move targets a key U.S. vulnerability in the nuclear fuel cycle, as it controls nearly half of global uranium enrichment capacity and supplied over a quarter of U.S. enriched fuel last year.

Chris Gadomski, head nuclear analyst for BloombergNEF commented: “We don’t have enough enriched uranium here. They should have been stockpiling enriched uranium in anticipation of this happening.”

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Iran warns Israel: Nuclear doctrine may shift if its nuclear facilities are attacked

A senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has suggested that the country may revise its nuclear doctrine if Israel attacks its nuclear facilities.

In an interview with Iran’s Fars News Agency on October 9, Brig. Gen. Rasoul Sanaei-Rad warned Israel against targeting these facilities.

“These days, there is talk of approaching zero hour and the reaction of the Zionists,” he said, emphasizing that even officials in the United States have been advising Israel to avoid such escalatory actions, indicating that the potential repercussions of striking Iran’s nuclear sites must be carefully considered.

Sanaei-Rad articulated that an attack on Iran’s nuclear centers could significantly alter the strategic landscape and lead to changes in Iran’s nuclear policies. He declared that targeting these facilities would cross “regional and global red lines” and reminded that there are established protocols regarding nuclear facilities that must be respected during wartime.

Iran’s primary nuclear facility is located in Natanz, a central city in Isfahan Province. The facility has previously been a target of cyberattacks attributed to Israel.

In April 2021, Iran accused Israel of carrying out a devastating cyberattack at Natanz that damaged its centrifuges. Later that month, Iran announced that it had enriched uranium to 60 percent, a level closer to weapons-grade material. Additionally, Iran attributed a drone strike on a military facility in Isfahan to Israel in April.

Sanaei-Rad cautioned that Israel must “reflect on Iran’s possible reaction,” warning that any attack on Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure could impact global fuel prices and energy security.

“The rational advice is not to take any action that will lead to the development of tension. If they want to take action, they should consider these issues,” Sanaei-Rad said.

He highlighted that Israel’s infrastructure is densely concentrated in a relatively small area, making it more vulnerable to a potential Iranian response. 

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Israel’s 1981 Attack on Nuclear Facility “STARTED” Iraq’s Nuclear Weapons Program

Biden announced that Washington doesn’t support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which to some knowledgeable observers, given Biden’s record, makes that more likely. 

There are many other hypocrisies and fallacies, but obviously the first thing to be said about Israel’s propaganda regarding Iran’s nuclear program being weaponized is that Israel has its own massive nuclear weapons program that both it and the US government have refused to acknowledge for decades, as I’ve long documented.

But one myth is little known and important to understand as Israel seems to be eyeing striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The Telegraph yesterday claimed: “Israel did the world a historic favour when it bombed Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981.”

Bullshit.

Israel would claim in 1981: “From sources whose reliability is beyond any doubt, we learn that this reactor, despite its camouflage, is designed to produce atomic bombs.” Which seems to be a case of projection given their deceit regarding their Dimona facility.

In fact, Richard Wilson, who was Mallinckrodt research professor of physics at Harvard University, visited the Osirak Iraqi reactor in 1982 after it was bombed by Israel. He told me back in 2006: “Many claim that the bombing of the Iraqi Osirak reactor delayed Iraq’s nuclear bomb program. But the Iraqi nuclear program before 1981 was peaceful, and the Osirak reactor was not only unsuited to making bombs but was under intensive safeguards. Certainly, Saddam Hussein would clearly have liked a nuclear bomb if he could have had one, but the issue is whether there were enough procedures for that reactor in place to prevent him from doing so and all the indications are that there were enough procedures.

“The Osirak reactor was destroyed in June 1981. It was not until early in July 1981 that Saddam Hussein personally released Dr. Jafar Dhia Jafar from house arrest and asked him to start and head the clandestine nuclear bomb program. The destruction of Osirak did not stop an Iraqi nuclear bomb program but probably started it. Worse still, the Israelis were so pleased with themselves that it appears that neither they nor the CIA looked for and understood the real direction of the Iraqi nuclear bomb program.

“In the international discussions with Iran, this must be borne in mind. Bombing a peaceful program, rather than controlling it, is very dangerous. But, alas, this is not the lesson that many people, who have not studied the technical evidence, have gained.” Wilson died in 2018. See his piece in New Outlook: “Iraq’s uranium separation: the huge surprise.”

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While we’re supplied unreliable “renewable” energy, reliable “green” nuclear energy will be supplied for data centres and AI

AI’s insatiable need for power is driven by the complexity and scale of its computational requirements.

AI models are often trained and deployed in data centres, which are massive facilities housing thousands of servers. These servers consume a substantial amount of energy, equivalent to that of 30,000 homes.

AI inference, the process of answering user queries, relies heavily on Graphics Processing Units (“GPUs”). Each inference requires GPU processing power, which uses energy. This demand is expected to increase as more AI models are developed and deployed.

Larger AI models, such as those used in language processing and computer vision, require more computational resources and, consequently, more energy. These models have billions of parameters and rely on massive data sets, further straining energy demands.  And as AI adoption grows, so does the need for more powerful infrastructure to support it.

In an own goal for those eager to implement Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals – such as those who eagerly signed the ‘Pact for the Future’, ‘Global Digital Compact’ and ‘Pact for Future Generations’ at the UN Summit of the Future on Sunday – the energy consumption of AI systems contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, so they say, and strains global grids. 

In Bloomberg’s podcast below (audio only) published on Tuesday, host David Gura and Bloomberg reporter Josh Saul discuss just what the insatiable AI data centre power needs mean for local communities, energy prices and efforts to switch to “renewables” to combat climate change.

“The big tech companies have set ambitious impressive clean energy goals … almost to a company [they] have said, ‘By 2030 we’re going to be 100% clean energy for our data centres’. But it’s a difficult thing to do because data centres are on all the time, 100% of the time, so to match that to clean energy is hard,” Saul said.

We guess matching large energy requirements 100% of the time is hard to do with “renewable” energy, i.e. wind and solar, because it is unreliable and intermittent.

However, the solution is simple; label nuclear energy as “green” energy. Gura posed the question: “Do they, the tech companies, believe that kind of traditional green energy, do they think that green energy is going to be enough to make up the difference that they need?”

Saul responded, “Well everybody loves nuclear I mean nuclear has gotten so hot, like Joe Rogan talking about nuclear.”

Gura chipped in, “Bill Gates is talking about it now.”

“Everybody. Yeah, everyone’s very excited about nuclear,” Saul said.

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