Several unidentified flying objects have been spotted over nuclear power plants in France and Belgium over the last few months, and the story has been all over European news.
Thus far, the media has reported that the UFOs are likely drones. However, currently, months after the sightings began, the French government still doesn't know who they belong to. Now a director of one of those nuclear power plants in France says whatever flew over his plant in October, 2014, was not a drone. It was a UFO.
According to Austrian news site ORF.at, there were 18 separate occasions UFOs were seen flying over nuclear power plants in France between early October and early November. The latest incident was announced on January 3, 2015. A nuclear power plant in Nogent-sur-Seine, southeast of Paris, reported that two security guards saw "two flying objects."
The media has reported that some authorities suspect the objects are drones flown by anti-nuclear activists to demonstrate that the plants are open to terrorist attacks via drones. However, authorities have not been able to track them. The largest anti-nuclear organizations have also denied any involvement.
According to The Independent in the UK, a source at Greenpeace has said, "Anti-nuclear campaigners tend also to be anti hi-tech."
In late November, France's secretary-general of defence and national security (SGDSN) posted a press release on the issue, stating (translated by Google Translate): "Although currently listed overflights do not present a threat jeopardizing the proper functioning and security of nuclear facilities, they are nevertheless a warning about potential risks from inappropriate or malicious use."
The SGDSN wrote that they would deal with the issue with "the implementation and development of detection means and the interception of these small aircraft."
As the months have passed, and the concerns have grown, France has not come any closer to identifying the origins of the mysterious aircraft, and it appears not all of the authorities believe drones are to blame.
According to the French newspaper Sud Ouest, a director of one of the nuclear power plants has expressed his opinion that a drone was not what flew over his nuclear power plant. Pascal Pezzani, Director of Blayais Nuclear Power Plant in southwestern France, held a presentation on the plant's results for 2014 and the outlook for the plant in the future.
Pezzani addressed the drone issue, and stated (translated by Google Translate): "Here, we have not seen drone. We saw a UFO and there was no impact on the safety of our sites. Our position is clear, when there overflight of the site and we complain we communicate."
Although, there is a little lost in translation, Pezzani is apparently expressing that when there is an overflight, they do file a complaint with the authorities. However, Sud Ouest points out that the overflight at this particular plant was in October, 2014, but was not communicated until December.
Others also feel that this UFO mystery cannot be answered by unclaimed drones. German news blogger Andreas Müller runs the website Grewi.de, which covers "frontier-science and the paranormal." He alerted me to this latest news, and previously had posted a story about civilian witnesses to the objects. According to Müller, the testimony was printed in the latest issue of a Swiss magazine called Mysteries. Writer Robert Fleischer found witnesses at forum-ovni-ufologie.com, a popular French UFO forum.
Müller writes that Fleischer is skeptical of the drone explanation, given the descriptions by witnesses. Fleischer suspects there is more to it than French authorities are willing to admit.
It has been reported that France is on "high alert" due to these UFO overflights of nuclear power plants, and with the latest being earlier this year, this mystery shows every indication of becoming an even bigger concern in 2015.
For more about this story and other alleged UFO sightings over nuclear facilities, visit OpenMinds.tv.
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