New Records Reveal Repeated Drone Flights Over U.S. Nuclear Sites, Including Reactors Near Langley Air Force Base
Above: Surry Nuclear Power Plant
Written by Kyle Warfel and Christopher Sharp - 7 October 2026
Liberation Times obtained 67 NRC drone-related reports covering 28 nuclear sites across 17 states, with accounts spanning February 2024 to March 2026.
Repeated flights were reported over Surry Nuclear Power Plant, roughly 20 miles from Langley Air Force Base, including one over both reactor containment buildings. A separate account records radar confirmation from nearby Fort Eustis.
Surry security described a triangular-looking drone and two smaller drones zigzagging around a larger aircraft before all three disappeared from view.
Aircraft estimated to be the size of small cars were reported at New Jersey’s Hope Creek. At Connecticut’s Millstone, security described a five-foot-wide, V-shaped drone that flew over a reactor building.
Four drones were reported over Nuclear Fuel Services in Tennessee, which manufactures fuel material for U.S. Navy nuclear reactors. One reportedly appeared to be a ten-foot-by-ten-foot rotary craft.
At Haddam Neck’s spent-fuel storage site, security recorded a drone apparently matching the site’s decision to switch off its lights: “When the site turned their lights off, the drone did the same.”
Sightings continued into March 2026, and every NRC entry is marked “Closed Unresolved”. The released records provide limited information about subsequent investigations or findings.
Separately, police records say the Pentagon classified a manifesto recovered from Matthew Livelsberger’s phone. They do not establish whether it included his emailed allegations about Chinese aircraft using “gravitic propulsion systems”.
Security reports obtained by Liberation Times describe repeated drone flights over Virginia's Surry Nuclear Power Plant in December 2024, including a flight over both reactor containment buildings.
One account describes two smaller drones zigzagging around a larger aircraft before all three disappeared from view.
Another records plant security receiving radar confirmation from nearby Fort Eustis.
The five Surry accounts are among 67 drone-related reports obtained from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) through the Freedom of Information Act.
The NRC is America's civilian nuclear regulator, responsible for licensing, inspection and enforcement of safety and security rules.
The reports cover 28 named nuclear sites across 17 states, with register dates running from 1 February 2024 to 25 March 2026.
They include accounts of drones flying over reactor buildings, spent-fuel storage sites and Nuclear Fuel Services in Tennessee, which manufactures fuel material for the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.
An individual report can cover several aircraft or repeated sightings.
Surry sits roughly 20 miles from Langley Air Force Base. Separate Pentagon PHALANX monitoring reports logged 113 drone detection events around Langley that December, including two aircraft tracked about 250 metres outside its boundary.
The two sets of reports do not establish a flight between Surry and Langley or identify a common operator.
A year earlier, incursions over Langley had disrupted F-22 operations and, according to The Wall Street Journal, triggered White House meetings.
Flights Over Surry's Reactors
On 3 December 2024, Surry reported multiple drones passing over its owner-controlled grounds and protected area - the secured part of the site - between 8.45pm and midnight.
The plant heightened security and notified the FBI, local police and Fort Eustis.
An account describing sightings on 10 December records aircraft around security enclosures, the administration building and firing range.
One hovered about 100 feet above a security enclosure before its lights appeared to go out and officers lost sight of it.
Later that evening, an officer saw a larger drone north of the construction area, with red, green and white lights.
While that sighting was being reported, another aircraft passed overhead. An officer described 'a triangular solid appearing shaped drone'.
A third drone moved east from the firing range, hovered near a parking lot and climbed.
The account then describes two smaller aircraft 'flying in a zig zag pattern opposite of each other laterally north to south around the larger drone'.
All three travelled east by northeast before disappearing from view.
The narrative dates the sightings to 10 December, although the register lists 9 December.
Fort Eustis, the Army component of Joint Base Langley-Eustis, sits across the James River from Surry. Plant security contacted it repeatedly during the December sightings.
On 12 December, an off-duty security officer reported a drone near a checkpoint.
According to the NRC report, the Fort Eustis control tower 'confirmed that the drone appeared on radar at approximately 300 feet.'
A Surry County deputy later reported three drones nearby before they crossed into Isle of Wight County.
The next evening, an officer saw a drone above a gate.
It moved west over a crane enclosure and disappeared without entering the protected area. Calls to Fort Eustis and Norfolk Radar Approach Control produced no identification.
On 17 December, another aircraft crossed the protected area and passed over both reactor containment buildings. Fort Eustis air traffic control told Surry there was no military drone activity in the area.
The reports record the plant's account of radar confirmation but include no radar data or images identifying the aircraft.
Drones Detected Near Langley
The separate PHALANX reports came from the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
They were obtained through FOIA and published by Government Attic.
The December 2024 report logged 56 drone serial numbers within about five miles of Langley, generating 113 detection events.
Repeated detections of the same serial number were sometimes grouped into one event, so the figure cannot be read as 113 separate aircraft or base incursions.
On 2 December, PHALANX recorded two aircraft operating about 250 metres west of Langley's boundary. One was identified as a Skydio drone. The other was a DJI aircraft whose activity appeared recreational.
Surry reported multiple drones crossing its owner-controlled and protected areas the following night.
The PHALANX logs identified familiar retail models, including DJI Mini and Mavic drones. Some serial numbers were also detected near Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and Norfolk Naval Shipyard that month.
For Langley itself, the December report states that there were 'no detects occurring within Langley's base boundary.'
That describes what this monitoring recorded; it does not establish that every flight in the area was detected.
The overlap with Surry is in the month and region. Neither set of reports matches an aircraft at one site to the other.
The Swarms That Disrupted Langley
Earlier headline-grabbing Langley incursions occurred in December 2023.
Drones of unknown origin appeared over the base during a 17-day period, with the Air Force confirming that sightings began on 6 December.
Langley houses F-22 fighter units and Air Combat Command's headquarters. Its fighters help defend U.S. airspace, including the skies around Washington, D.C.
The Air Force said the aircraft varied in size and configuration and showed no apparent hostile intent, although their presence in restricted airspace posed a flight-safety risk.
The Wall Street Journal reported that commanders cancelled nighttime training over collision concerns and moved F-22 fighters to another base.
President Joe Biden was briefed, and the incursions prompted two weeks of White House meetings, according to the newspaper.
Liberation Times later obtained 22 witness statements and an incident report from the 633d Security Forces Squadron through FOIA.
One account described 15 to 20 small unmanned aircraft entering and leaving the base between 6.30pm and 11pm on 6 December.
Another witness saw nine moving towards the flight line in a diamond formation.
Security officers struggled to respond. One said a handheld Dronebuster counter-drone device 'failed to register' an object.
In another account, fog and a lack of visual contact prevented its use.
NASA's WB-57 research aircraft also supported the response, The War Zone reported.
NASA confirmed that its aircraft provided additional imaging support in Virginia that December. Its public schedule lists imaging work on 18 and 19 December without identifying the mission's subject.
In March 2024, General Gregory Guillot, then commanding the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command, told the Senate that the counter-drone mission had dominated his first month in command. He was using the Langley-Eustis events as the centrepiece of his 90-day assessment.
At a House hearing on 29 April 2025, Rear Admiral Paul Spedero Jr., the Joint Staff's vice director for operations, described them as 'the longest and the largest series of incursions that we have seen to date.'
At the same hearing, acting Assistant Secretary of Defense Mark Ditlevson said internal difficulties and a relatively untested process for coordinating with other agencies had hampered the response.
He also said the department had since improved its procedures and responses.
Surry's Place in the Earlier Investigation
Surry had already featured in Liberation Times' investigation of the 2023 Langley events.
Civilian, Jonathan Butner, said he was stargazing from the western bank of the James River on 14 December 2023 when he saw approximately 40 blinking, car-sized objects over Langley.
He also described a larger, saucer-shaped object passing Newport News and travelling 'towards Fort Eustis before then circling by Surry Nuclear Power Plant.'
Butner said he gave footage and testimony to the FBI.
The footage published with Liberation Times' May 2024 reporting does not clearly show the shapes he described.
At the time of that reporting, the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) said it had received no report or information about the Langley incident.
Butner's account and Surry's proximity to Langley prompted Liberation Times to ask the NRC on 3 May 2024 whether the plant had reported drone activity the previous December and whether it was being investigated.
NRC spokesperson David McIntyre replied on 8 May 2024:
'The NRC regulations in 10 CFR Part 73 require licensees to notify the NRC of suspicious activity at licensed facilities. Until January 2024, reporting of drone sightings was voluntary, and we did not receive a report from Surry on the dates you specified.
‘The NRC regulations now require reporting of drone flyovers within posted or restricted areas and within close proximity to the facility (i.e., above or near).'
Car-Sized Aircraft Reported at Hope Creek
The NRC reports describe sightings at other nuclear sites during December 2024, including New Jersey's Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station.
On 13 December, security watched two drones leave its protected area. The report states:
'Both drones were 400 feet in the air with red and white flashing lights and were approximately the size of a small motor vehicle.'
Three drones were reported inside the protected area the following evening. A larger craft hovered near the cooling tower, then entered the area near two smaller drones above Unit 1.
Local police responded. The account also states:
'The FBI opened an active investigation into the drone sightings.'
It provides no subsequent findings from that investigation.
Descriptions of size, shape and altitude in these reports are observers' estimates, rather than independent technical identifications.
Flights Over Reactors and Spent-Fuel Sites
At Connecticut's Millstone Power Station, security reported seven drones on 14 December 2024, describing them as quadcopters about three feet by three feet with flashing green and red lights. Two briefly entered the protected area.
At about 1.30am the following morning, another aircraft appeared near the spent-fuel storage facility. Security described 'a large (5 ft. across), V-shaped drone'.
As officers approached the fence for a better view, it flew west over the Unit 2 reactor building and departed over Niantic Bay.
Millstone kept its security posture unchanged during and after both incidents.
Louisiana's River Bend Station accounts for ten of the 67 reports, the largest total for any named site in the collection.
On 6 January 2025, security saw about five drones roughly 100 feet above its reactor building.
The report records:
'The drones appeared as rectangular and black. No lights were observed.'
They disappeared from view to the south four minutes later.
Security heightened its awareness and notified the sheriff's department, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the FBI.
Two days later, four drones were reported around Minnesota's Prairie Island station. They covered all four quadrants of the owner-controlled area and crossed into the protected area about twice.
Security adopted an elevated posture. Police responded but could not identify the operators. The drones left about 44 minutes after the initial report, and security stood down.
An earlier report describes an aircraft approaching California's Diablo Canyon from over the ocean on 25 October 2024.
Security activated a “Code Yellow” alert, indicating a heightened state of security awareness. The craft spent approximately five minutes inside the protected area.
The aircraft was described as two to three feet in size, with small wings and multiple amber lights. An officer said it was 'extremely quiet with no buzzing sound present.'
Security cameras revealed no operators. Attempts to identify the aircraft failed; details of those attempts are redacted.
Lights Go Out as Sightings Continue
The accounts extend well beyond December 2024.
At Connecticut's Haddam Neck spent-fuel storage site, a report dated 27 March 2025 describes four drones circling around and inside the perimeter.
One was larger than the other three. They flew at about 200 to 300 feet, sometimes higher, and were still over the site when the report was made two hours later.
The next evening, security saw an aircraft about the size of a folding table fly west over the site and then reverse direction. The officers recorded:
'When the site turned their lights off, the drone did the same.'
The site's security posture remained unchanged.
At Nuclear Fuel Services in Tennessee, security reported four drones over the facility on 23 May 2025, between 11.10pm and 11.43pm.
Its parent company, BWXT, says the facility manufactures fuel material for naval reactors used in U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers.
The report states:
'All sighted drones displayed navigation lights and one appeared to be a 10x10 ft rotary craft.'
A review of footage revealed a similar aircraft had flown over the site on 18 May, travelling west to east at 300 feet or below without loitering.
Further sightings followed on 3 June, when several apparent quadcopters were still near the facility as the report was made.
At Illinois' Clinton station, officers saw four to five drones circling near the flume discharge area on 12 September 2025. Three returned after a brief departure and resumed the same flight patterns.
Two more were reported near that area on 14 September. A separate sighting followed over the protected area.
An officer tracked an aircraft over the raw water treatment building and lake, then 'lost visual as it appeared the drone lights shut off near the route 54 bridge.'
The Haddam Neck and Clinton reports do not explain why the lights appeared to go out.
Sightings Continue Into 2026
The most recent NRC reports describe activity in 2026.
On 9 February, a contracted employee reported a drone over the north end of Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island. Site security and state police responded but did not see the aircraft.
At Illinois' Byron Nuclear Station, the latest account began at about 11.10pm on 24 March 2026.
Staff saw a drone cross the protected area from northwest to southeast. The FBI's Rockford office, FAA air traffic control and the Ogle County Sheriff's Department were contacted.
At 12.08am on 25 March, security officers and police observed two separate drones over the owner-controlled and protected areas.
The report states:
'Drone activity continued until 0130.'
The sightings spanned roughly two hours and 20 minutes.
Langley Questions and a Classified Manifesto
Questions about responsibility for the 2023 Langley incursions have continued on Capitol Hill.
In a 24 September 2026 interview for Ask a Pol, journalist Matt Laslo asked Senator Mike Rounds about a source's claim that China had caused the 17-day disruption and relocation of F-22 fighters.
Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
'I can't talk about that right now,' Rounds replied.
Asked whether the United States possessed comparable technology, he said:
'Let's put it this way, they don't keep me or members of our [Intelligence] Committee awake at night. But I suspect we keep them awake at night.'
A separate allegation about Chinese aircraft came from Army Special Forces soldier Matthew Livelsberger, who died in the Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on 1 January 2025.
On 31 December 2024, Livelsberger sent retired Army intelligence officer Sam Shoemate a manifesto by email.
Made public on the Shawn Ryan Show on 3 January 2025, the manifesto alleged that East Coast sightings involved Chinese aircraft using 'gravitic propulsion systems'.
He claimed both China and the United States possessed that capability.
Authorities later confirmed that Livelsberger had sent the emailed manifesto, ABC News reported.
Days after the emailed manifesto became public, the Pentagon classified a manifesto recovered from Livelsberger’s phone.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s after-action report, published in November 2025, dates that decision to 9 January 2025:
'The U.S. Department of Defense declared the manifesto classified, and the investigation was turned over to the federal government.'
The report also records that police were told they could no longer disclose further information about the recovered manifesto.
A police announcement published on 8 January 2025 described the recovered manifesto as 'in addition to' the email and two previously published letters.
However, neither the announcement nor the later report establishes whether the recovered document included the emailed manifesto or its drone allegations. The report does not identify the material that led to classification.
What the NRC Reports Leave Unanswered
Every NRC entry carries the status 'Closed Unresolved'.
Many narratives also say the reports are open pending internal review. The documents do not explain that discrepancy, and neither label establishes the current status of investigations by the FBI, FAA or police.
Not every sighting was assessed as suspicious.
Quad Cities security reached that conclusion about sightings on 1 and 2 February 2024. At California's Rancho Seco spent-fuel site, a 25 June 2024 flyover received the same assessment based on its flight path and pattern.
At Maine Yankee, officers saw an individual take pictures or video outside the entrance and launch a drone on 10 August 2024.
The person ignored announcements to leave, recovered the aircraft and drove away in an SUV. Police could not intercept them.
The NRC's Inspector General has examined the broader issue. Its April to September 2025 semiannual report recorded 34 suspicious-activity reports involving unauthorised drones between 10 August 2024 and 11 January 2025 - a shorter period than the reports obtained by Liberation Times.
The review examined the NRC's response, oversight and coordination with other agencies. It said most specifics involved sensitive information protected in the interest of national security.
A rule published in March 2023 set 8 January 2024 as the compliance deadline for relevant new security-reporting requirements.
The NRC's January 2025 fact sheet said nuclear plant operators must report drone sightings over their facilities.
The same fact sheet said plant security forces lacked authority to intercept or shoot down aircraft, including drones. It stressed that nuclear plants have hardened structures, armed personnel, physical barriers and surveillance systems.
Liberation Times' earlier reporting on Coast Guard records documented December 2024 sightings off New Jersey. Those records also included a TSA assessment attributing some footage to conventional aircraft approaching JFK.
Across more than two years, the nuclear-site reports document repeated sightings, flights over protected areas and calls to law enforcement. They offer far less information about what happened after those calls.
The latest Byron account records aircraft still being sighted at 1.30am, but gives no subsequent findings about their operators or purpose.
Allegations of Chinese involvement in the separate Langley incursions raise concerns about possible surveillance of sensitive nuclear infrastructure by a foreign power.
The sightings also invite comparison with a much longer history of reported Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena encounters around nuclear facilities, including a former security officer’s account of a triangular object over Cooper Nuclear Station in the 1980s and Australian government records of UFO sightings near a nuclear weapons testing range in 1960.
The released NRC reports neither link the Surry flights to China nor establish a connection with those historical accounts.
For the unidentified aircraft reported over reactor buildings, the central questions remain unanswered: who was flying them, whether they were gathering intelligence, and what investigators established after the plant alerted federal authorities.
The latest findings build on Liberation Times’ April 2026 investigation, which revealed 22 drone-related incidents around U.S. nuclear facilities between September 2022 and February 2023.
Those records included a prolonged incursion at Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna nuclear plant involving multiple aircraft, one described as a larger triangular object apparently carrying a spotlight.
