Are the drones reportedly seen over New Jersey and New York being used to track nuclear material in the country? No, that's not true: The National Nuclear Security Administration's emergency team told Lead Stories it doesn't use drones to detect nuclear or radiological materials. In a joint statement on December 16, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense said the agencies hadn't found anything in the reported drone sightings that posed a threat to national security or public safety.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) and a reply published on Threads on December 14, 2024. The caption said:
If you are not freaked out yet by the drones over New Jersey, you should be. Something is about to go down-we are being lied to. dronesnj
The reply to the post said:
You're right
The drones are anti nuke tracers. Meaning they can detect nuclear activity or 'boom cases'. The Govt is playing stupid because they don't want to cause massive panic in major cities (NY & NJ) but it's believed a nuclear suitcase has entered the US already and counter intelligence are using these drones to try and locate it and protect military assets, DC and other locations. It's why they're saying they're not a threat and don't shoot them down.
Remember I said it first 👌🏼
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Mon Dec 16 16:43:29 2024 UTC)
Neither the post nor the reply gave any evidence to back up the claim that drones spotted in New Jersey and New York are being used to track nuclear material.
National Nuclear Security Administration
In a December 17, 2024, email, a National Nuclear Security Administration spokesperson provided a statement to Lead Stories. It said:
The Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration's Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) does not employ drones for nuclear/radiological detection missions, and is not currently conducting any aerial operations in that region.
NEST maintains an array of capabilities to search for dangerous materials over wide areas based on a variety of threat intelligence in coordination with our U.S. Government mission partners. NEST is not presently engaged in any such mission.
Additional information on how NEST uses aircraft to scan for radiation can be found here, here and here (archived here, here and here).
Other government agencies
The Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense addressed the drone sightings in a joint statement (archived here) released on December 16, 2024. In part, it said:
Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones. We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.
Department of Homeland Security
In an interview (archived here) about the drone sightings on ABC's "This Week," which aired on December 15, 2024, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the 2:26 mark, "I think there are more than 8,000 drones flown every day in the United States. ... There are ... more than 1 million drones registered in the United States." Mayorkas continued at the 4:24 mark:
Look, it is our job to be vigilant in the federal government and with our state and local partners on behalf of the American public. And we can assure their safety by reason of that vigilance.
We've deployed personnel, technology, and if there is any reason for concern, if we identify any foreign involvement or criminal activity, we will communicate with the American public accordingly.
Right now, we are not aware of any. If we become aware of any, we will communicate accordingly and take appropriate action.
The video of the interview (archived here) is embedded below:
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims involving drones can be found here.
