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In this episode of "Reality Check," Ross Coulthart sits down with Daryl Johnson, the former senior security specialist at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who spent more than a decade monitoring and trending every reported drone and UAP flyover at America's commercial nuclear power plants. Johnson reveals that close to 300 flyovers were logged between 2014 and 2025, with fewer than one percent ever traced back to an operator, and that the vast majority of plants still have no no-fly zone, no radar and no aerial detection requirement of any kind.
Johnson recounts the incidents that defied a conventional drone explanation, including a black triangle that hovered over Pennsylvania's Susquehanna plant for more than two hours in 2022 and a December 2024 incident near Virginia's Surry plant in which lights vanished and reappeared a mile away within seconds before ascending out of sight. Johnson also describes the resistance he met inside the NRC when he pushed for UAP reporting guidance, and the AARO data request that first put the phenomenon on his desk. His conclusion, drawn from his new book "Unguarded Skies," is blunt: something is observing us and we don't know what it is or who controls it.
#nuclearplant #UAPs #drones
CREDITS:
Host: Ross Coulthart
Executive Producer: Andy Gipson
Editorial Producer: Meagan Medick
Associate Producer: Will Tomasi
Research Producer: Rob Jones
Editor: Tony Diasio
On "Reality Check," NewsNation Special Correspondent Ross Coulthart takes a fact-based approach to tackle everything from unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) to mysteries often missing from the headlines.
More Reality Check: https://www.newsnationnow.com/podcasts-newsnation/reality-check-with-ross-coulthart/
Email your questions to RealityCheck@NewsNationNow.com
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CHAPTER SUMMARY:
0:00 Intro
4:04 What Are These Drones?
5:06 Why Nuclear Plants Are Targets
7:40 A Word From Our Sponsors
10:12 How Serious is this Threat?
11:08 Bigger Than a Vehicle
13:11 Two Hours Over Susquehanna
15:33 No Detection Equipment
17:09 Less Than One Percent Identified
18:09 Discovering the UAP Question
20:05 Where Plants Are Vulnerable
23:47 Lessons From Ukraine
25:43 Only Two No-Fly Zones
28:06 Fighting His Own Agency
32:09 Security Rolled Back
37:21 The Inexpensive Fix
39:26 How Japan Solved It
41:47 An Order Without Teeth
44:52 Triangles in the Archive
47:18 The Surry Incident
48:51 Laughed at by Management
52:14 Incomplete Data to AARO
55:57 "Something Is Observing Us"
1:00:20 Nearly 300 Flyovers
1:01:25 Told to Stand Down
1:04:29 A Secret American Craft?
1:06:08 The White Paper
1:08:25 The Pantex Contrast
1:11:07 No Aerial Detection Required
1:14:07 Can't Jam, Can't Shoot
1:16:26 Safer Skies and Cotton Bill
1:18:51 What Does He Think?
