New Jersey Mayor Michael Melham of Belleville said on Tuesday that the drone sightings over the state could be connected to missing radioactive materials, the New York Post reports. If this is the case, federal officials say that the amount of the materials “poses no serious threat either way.”
Melham said that the drones appear to be flying in a “grid-like pattern” which suggests that the township could be “looking for something.”
Further explaining why he drew this conclusion as a possibility, the mayor said that there was a shipment which arrived at its destination, but the container was “damaged” and empty.
According to The Post, “The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued an alert earlier this week regarding a piece of medical equipment used for cancer scans that was ‘lost in transit’ Dec. 2 while being shipped from the Nazha Cancer Center in Newfield in Gloucester County in southern New Jersey.”
“The device, an Eckert & Ziegler model HEGL-0132, was to be properly discarded — but its ‘shipping container arrived at its destination damaged and empty,’ the agency said.”
The medical equipment, known as a “pin source” contains a “tiny amount of the radioactive chemical Germanium-68, which is used in PET scanners to calibrate accuracy.”
The source of radiation is not considered to be very serious, The Post reports, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s scale which deemed it less than a Category 3 level emergency which means that it is “very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury.”
Speculation around the numerous drones spotted flying over New York and New Jersey have led to a number of theories as to their source and reason for being up in the skies. According to The Post, John Ferguson, CEO of a remote-aircraft-system company in Kansas, reportedly made the assumption that the drones were trying to sense a “gas leak, radioactive material or something else,” adding that the only reason an unmanned aircraft would fly is if it is “looking for something.” Still, Ferguson added that he does not believe that the drones are a threat to the public.
Still, residents of the tri-state area, along with its congressional leaders, are demanding answers. While the Biden administration continues to downplay the circumstances, suspense is continuing to build, leaving only theories as possible explanations thus far as to the reason why numerous drones are flying above the states.
