Documents / Official release
This is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission email thread from September 29 to October 1, 2015, released in 2023. NRC staff, including Region I Regional Counsel Brett Klukan and Raymond Lorson, discuss a possible drone sighting over the Pilgrim nuclear plant. According to the site security manager, Plymouth police found the object was thousands of feet up. The FAA and a Massachusetts State Police helicopter could not identify it, and a weather balloon was suspected. No SIDS report was made because the object posed no threat.
From: Lorson, Raymond To: Caron, Dana; Klukan, Brett; Dimitriadis, Anthony; Cherubini, John Subject: RE: Pilgrim Drone Spotting Date: Thursday, October 1, 2015 4:49:15 PM Thanks dana; appreciate the follow-up. For the record we don’t regulate UFOs so I assume no need for additional action. Ray From: Caron, Dana Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2015 1:27 PM To: Lorson, Raymond; Klukan, Brett; Dimitriadis, Anthony; Cherubini, John Subject: RE: Pilgrim Drone Spotting The security manager got back to me. Plymouth PD arrived on site and it turned out that the object was actually much higher (thousands of feet) and indiscernible at that distance. FAA was contacted to no avail. MA State Police sent a helicopter, but even they couldn’t identify the object. They think it might have been a weather balloon of some sort, but no one was definite. They are calling it a UFO. Nonetheless, it doesn’t appear to have caused any kind of threat to the site (distance) nor was it indicative of any kind of surveillance or suspicious activity that would meet criteria for a SIDS report so one was not made. That should close this episode out. From: Lorson, Raymond Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 11:11 AM To: Klukan, Brett; Dimitriadis, Anthony; Cherubini, John; Caron, Dana Subject: RE: Pilgrim Drone Spotting Brett – last I heard the licensee wasn’t sure if the flyover was a bird, plane, drone or superman. Tony et el did we ever hear back from Pilgrim regarding the potential drone sighting? Thanks Ray From: Klukan, Brett Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 8:44 AM To: Lorson, Raymond Subject: Pilgrim Drone Spotting Ray, What happened with that? Did they eventually make a report?
Not linked to a story yet.
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 7 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.