Mysterious drone swarm flew over Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant

It is not only in where we have seen mysterious drone swarms. On two successive evenings in September last year, multiple drones were seen flying over America’s most powerful power plant, the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant, in .

Mysterious drone swarm flew over Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant

Joseph Trevithick and Tyler Rogoway write for The Drive that:

… a bizarre and largely undisclosed incident involving a swarm of drones occurred on successive September evenings in 2019. The location? America’s most powerful nuclear plant, the Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Station situated roughly two dozen miles west to Phoenix, near Tonopah, Arizona.

In a trove of documents and internal correspondences related to the event, officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) described the incident as a “drone-a-palooza” and said that it highlighted concerns about the potential for a future “adversarial attack” involving small unmanned aircraft and the need for defenses against them. Even so, the helplessness and even cavalier attitude toward the as it was unfolding by those that are tasked with securing one of America’s largest and most sensitive nuclear facilities serves as an alarming and glaring example of how neglected and misunderstood this issue is.

This particular story starts on Sept. 29, 2019. Shortly before 11:00 PM local time at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Daphne Rodriguez, an Acting Security Section Chief at the plant, called the duty officer at NRC’s Headquarters Operations Center (HOC). Rodriguez reported that a number of drones were flying over and around a restricted area near the nuclear power plant’s Unit 3, which houses one of its three pressurized water reactors.

You can read the entire, detailed story here. It has been put together with the help of Douglas D. Johnson, a volunteer researcher affiliated with the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU). Through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Johnson was able to obtain a large trove of internal documents regarding the mysterious drone swarm that flew over the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant.

Mysterious Drone Swarm Flew Over Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant 1

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Haye Kesteloo
Haye Kesteloo

Haye Kesteloo is a leading drone industry expert and Editor in Chief of DroneXL.co and EVXL.co, where he covers drone technology, industry developments, and electric mobility trends. With over nine years of specialized coverage in unmanned aerial systems, his insights have been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, and cited by The Brookings Institute, Foreign Policy, Politico and others.

Before founding DroneXL.co, Kesteloo built his expertise at DroneDJ. He currently co-hosts the PiXL Drone Show on YouTube and podcast platforms, sharing industry insights with a global audience. His reporting has influenced policy discussions and been referenced in federal documents, establishing him as an authoritative voice in drone technology and regulation. He can be reached at haye @ dronexl.co or @hayekesteloo.

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