By the author of Street Survivalism: A Practical Training Guide To Life In The City and The Ultimate Survival Gear Handbook
The latest “thing of the moment” is the mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey and East Coast airspace. It has the right combination of factors to go viral in a matter of days, sparking the wildest explanations and craziest theories. And so it did.
Earlier this week, I posted on X (@StoicFabian) it looked like another distraction, much like the Chinese Balloon story that caused similar commotion in the early months of 2023.
I didn’t mean to sound like squads of drones suddenly flying day and night in formation over an area is routine or unimportant, just that the mass hysteria is unreasonable and unjustified. I’m an RC hobbyist and certified drone pilot myself. We use UAVs in engineering to perform a variety of tasks such as terrain surveys, topographic maps, structure analysis, and lots more.
These things are everywhere nowadays, from hobby flying to aerial photography, as well as in agriculture, and search and rescue… So what is this about?
I have no idea.
The evasive declarations by the U.S. government added gasoline to the speculation and conspiracy theories. Everybody from Joe Rogan to experts in all fields chimed in. We may never know for sure; this can turn into something, or fade away like so many other “issues”.
Missing radioactive material?
What motivated me to write about the episode was the declaration of New Jersey’s Belleville mayor, Michael Melham, that these drones could be “searching for missing radioactive material.”
Drones can be equipped with special sensors that detect radioactive particles, thermal signatures, and more from the air. They can be programmed to fly a grid automatically, covering large areas quickly. Even in the dark – though flying drones at night isn’t common, admittedly.
So, on the surface, someone (the government or whoever) using UAVs to “sniff out” something out there is in the realm of “probable,” however unusual or even suspicious.
Or, that could be an extra-official theory thrown out there by the authorities to avoid panic and satisfy the population, though in this case, I’d argue that “missing radioactive material” has a broad, broad meaning. It could be something small and relatively innocuous, but also a nuclear head gone astray.
The threat of “civil” radioactive material causing a small or medium-sized SHTF is real – so real, it happened in my country almost 40 years ago.
Everybody heard about Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Three Mile Island nuclear accidents. However, civil radioactive devices are also fairly ubiquitous in urban centers, where even a minor disaster can have severe consequences and affect a large area and population.
Even if the effects are limited and quickly contained, the psychological impact on the population can be deep and long-lasting. Panic can ensue. There are also legal, financial and economic implications and developments that can last for decades.
The Goiânia Accident
That’s the case of the 1987 Goiânia Accident, when an unsecured radiotherapy unit was stolen from an abandoned hospital site in the capital of Goiás state in central Brazil, and its Cesium-137 capsule opened and exposed.
That event resulted in four deaths and 229 contaminated. More than 112,000 in a city of 1.2 million people had to be examined and monitored. Twenty people showed signs of radiation sickness and required treatment.
Several buildings were demolished, and the topsoil of a large area was removed in the cleanup operation. Thousands of personal belongings were seized and then burned.
News of the incident was broadcast on local, national, and international media, prompting nearly 130,000 people in Goiânia to flood local hospitals concerned that they might have been exposed. People freak out on news of “invisible” threats like that. (Remember the Ebola panic in 2014?)
How things hit the fan
Things hit the fan via a succession of smaller disasters compounding into a nightmarish scenario.
The building from which the equipment was taken was impounded due to a dispute between the owner, its former occupant (a radiology institute), and the IICS, a representative of the institute employees. Four months before the theft, a director of the IICS used police force to prevent one of the tenants from removing the radioactive material that had been left behind.
The former tenant then warned the president of the IICS that he should take responsibility “for what would happen with the Cesium bomb.” The building owner went the same way, writing several letters to the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) to warn about the danger of keeping a teletherapy unit at an abandoned site, stating that they could not remove the equipment due to a court order.
The State Court posted a security guard to protect the premises. However, on September 13, the guard didn’t show up. Two scavengers entered the partially demolished building and disassembled an X-ray unit, taking the emitting head to their junkyard in a wheelbarrow. It was relatively small and heavy; scrap is sold by weight, so they thought they’d hit a home run.
Back at their junkyard, the two managed to pry open the head unit’s emitting enclosure, unaware of the content. After messing with the piece the entire morning, they started feeling sick that afternoon. In the following days, they kept tampering with the thing, finally rupturing the lead protection and exposing the Cesium-137 entirely.
After fiddling with it for a while, they resold the emitting head to another scrapyard. It kept changing hands for the next two weeks, each time having more of the radioactive grains removed by its handlers. Everybody was mesmerized by the bluish light coming out of the device and the dust, an effect of the Cherenkov Radiation.
“The lovely phosphorescent powder was unlike anything Leide das Neves Ferreira, 6, had ever seen. Her father, a junk dealer in the Brazilian city of Goiania, discovered the mysterious substance when he pried open a heavy lead casing that a scavenger had sold him. Leide rubbed the powder on her body so that she glowed and sparkled. Dust fell on the sandwich she was eating.
Leide, her father and the scrap collector were in critical condition at a Rio de Janeiro hospital last week, not expected to survive. An additional 20 or so people were also hospitalized, most of them relatives and neighbors of Leide’s father who had carried away traces of the powder on their skin and clothes.
The glittery stuff proved to be cesium-137, a radioactive isotope used in cancer-therapy equipment. The scrap collector found the casing a month ago in a spot where a radiotherapy clinic had once stood.” [SOURCE]
All those people who came into contact with or near the leaking piece started feeling sick hours after messing with it. The doctors who tended to them during those days thought it was food poisoning or something else. No one suspected a radiation leak, much less of that magnitude.
On September 29, the authorities finally became aware of the contamination after a visiting medical physicist used a scintillation counter to confirm the presence of radioactivity in the sick people being admitted to the hospital and warned the government agencies.
The rest is history. That’s how these things happen.
How can we prepare for something like that?
As evidenced by the facts, the Goiânia Accident was a succession of judicial f*ckery, bureaucratic negligence, utter ignorance, and a good dose of Thirdworldization. That damaging combination can be a more common combination than people think.
Therefore, one way to prepare is to stay well-informed and knowledgeable. Start with potential sources of radiation in our area. For instance, I live in an apartment next to a couple of commercial buildings filled with dentists’ offices and radiology institutes in that same building.
I cannot do much about that other than move to a safer area, but that may not be possible or practical for everyone. It comes down to risk assessment: how are these places managed? A run-down premise presents a different level of radioactive threat than a well-cared and secure one. Fortunately, the buildings and clinics in my area are OK. Gathering information is also low-risk and low-investment, so it pays to know.
Second, be knowledgeable on how to deal with it if something happens. I’d point to “Nuclear Survival With An NBC Specialist” webinar, available at The OP’s Self Reliance & Survival learning center. It’s focused on a nuclear strike or dirty bomb, but the information and tips on medications, radiation facts, and decontamination work the same for civil accidents like the one related.
The dangerous part of radioactive accidents is the difficulty to detect leaks without proper equipment, or until it has spread and the effects start showing up. Unlike chemicals, gas, or other substances, which are usually followed by smoke, fire, smell, or some other signal that prompts immediate warning and action. A detection device at home may be good if you think there’s enough radioactive risk where you live.
Finally, it doesn’t hurt to be ready to bug in and also to bug out. The first rule of survival is “not being there,” so if something happens, being ready to leave at the first news of something bad can improve our chances of coming out unscathed.
As for these drones and similar events, it may be worth following, like many other issues, but from a distance. A bunch of surveying drones flying constantly over an area could indicate something is going on. As mentioned, it could be a survey, a rescue party, or a film shooting, though in those cases, the operation would be registered and operators knew (if it’s something official and legal).
Conclusion
The story of the Goiânia Cesium-137 Accident shows how reality can be a lot more mundane than some doomsday preppers would admit. Big accidents and impactful events happen, sure. Crazy stuff happens. The world is a pretty crazy place right now, there’s no shortage of bizarre things going on everywhere, their frequency and craziness seemingly increasing with passing time.
However, overreacting or freaking out isn’t sensible. Almost two years later, we haven’t even been given a convincing, logical, plausible official explanation for the balloon thing; the same could happen with this drone episode. It could be anything from a hoax or psyop to an alien invasion. We may never know for sure. That’s the world we’re living in right now.
Any uncommon activity in your area should be checked. If you think something looks weird, go check yourself. Or not. Just don’t waste time reading everyone else’s and their dog’s opinions for weeks on end. It’s unproductive and can lead to paranoia or paralysis. Stay grounded and focused on more important things.
What do you think?
Do you have a theory about the drones on the East Coast? Do you think it’s related to radioactive material? Have you seen the drones yourself?
Let’s discuss it in the comments section.
About Fabian
Fabian Ommar is a 50-year-old middle-class worker living in São Paulo, Brazil. Far from being the super-tactical or highly trained military survivor type, he is the average joe who since his youth has been involved with self-reliance and outdoor activities and the practical side of balancing life between a big city and rural/wilderness settings. Since the 2008 world economic crisis, he has been training and helping others in his area to become better prepared for the “constant, slow-burning SHTF” of living in a 3rd world country.
Fabian’s ebook, Street Survivalism: A Practical Training Guide To Life In The City , is a practical training method for common city dwellers based on the lifestyle of the homeless (real-life survivors) to be more psychologically, mentally, and physically prepared to deal with the harsh reality of the streets during normal or difficult times. He’s also the author of The Ultimate Survival Gear Handbook.
You can follow Fabian on Instagram @stoicsurvivor
11 Responses
I have been following a well connected person who has worked for the CIA, Pentagon and government. He’s a lawyer and an Economist. He thinks the government is looking for people who are planning a dirty bomb with radioactive materials. My idea is it’s for NY City new years eve or the inauguration on January 20
When the government actually admits that there is missing radiological material you know that they are trapped. Not that I believe for a minute that they are expending this kind of effort for some missing Cat.3 X-ray calibration material. BUT! This allows them to continue their activities, and gives them an excuse that won’t panic the population.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09553002.2020.1793017
Exposure to ionizing radiation following environmental contamination (e.g., the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents), radiotherapy and diagnostics, occupational roles and space travel has been identified as a possible risk-factor for cognitive dysfunction. The deleterious effects of high doses (≥1.0 Gy) on cognitive functioning are fairly well-understood, while the consequences of low (≤0.1 Gy) and moderate doses (0.1–1.0 Gy) have been receiving more research interest over the past decade. In addition to any impact of actual exposure on cognitive functioning, the persistent psychological stress arising from perceived exposure, particularly following nuclear accidents, may itself impact cognitive functioning.
Most X ray machines and stuff really don’t have radioactive materials in them anymore, it’s produced electrically with a high voltage pulse. CW devices will have it though, cancer treatment devices will have it. There are also a LOT of industrial sources of Cobalt, Cesium and other isotopes around EVERY SINGLE TOWN, that people are clueless about.
I remember an incident we had during an outage, one of our slurry density detectors ended up in a junk yard, I won’t get into the details but the junk yard knew EXACTLY what it was, called our radiation guy and said you got 20 minutes to come pick up your device before I have to call the NRC and report it’s presence here. That would have been a major shitstorm on many levels. Anyways, asses were covered, lessons learned, until person A retired and person B takes over, it’s always that way.
It would be too easy for someone to get a hold of some ‘stuff’ and do ‘something bad’ with it.
It don’t take much and it doesn’t have to be super strong either, just throw a little here and there and let it get people over time, is what’s going to happen. You can thank biden and china for the next attack. Zelensky might be a part of it as well since Trump won’t play with him and he’s too dangerous now with what he knows about the Bidens.
Potassium Iodate……..
My first expectations are that – if not a distraction, while something else is going on – the drones could be primary missile target mapping of certain places to be hit by missiles fired from Iranian, N.Korean, or Chinese container ships in the Atlantic. I suspect some sort of attack to probably happen between Christmas day and January 20, as planned by our outgoing Pres-imbecile and his handlers – possibly after having conspired with the attackers – to possibly disrupt the inauguration of President-elect Trump, or to make it possible for an actual takeover to happen, keeping the inauguration from happening at all. Just thinking that it will be something along that order. Because the deep state cannot afford to allow Trump to get into the Oval Office. Whatever occurs…
Keep your minds clear and your heads on a swivel,
Blessings,
OD
The drones searching for radiation sounds legitimate Fabian. But there have been too many reports of weird, mysterious and illegal drone behavior that places a lot of them outside the searching for radiation, hobbyist drones and mistaken airplanes category.
What we know for sure is that this sudden onslaught of mysterious/weird drones has started just a few weeks before Donald Trump’s January 20, 2025 inauguration.
The crooked puppet Biden administration has continually lied saying there is no national or public security threat and no foreign nexus. Their National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby says “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.”
But Joe Biden off script and without a teleprompter completely contradicts the puppet masters official disinformation/lies propaganda.
See time stamp 0:18 where Biden says in response to a reporter who asked (What’s the explanation for all those drones over New Jersey. What’s behind all that?)
Biden answers:
“nothing nefarious apparently but
they’re checking it all out I think it’s
just one there’s a lot of drones authorized
up there I think started and they all
got everybody wants to get in the deal
but I’m we’re following Closely so far no
sensitive danger.”
See
BREAKING NEWS: Biden Comments On Mysterious Drones Flying Above New Jersey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGknydROIpA
Forbes Breaking News Dec 17, 2024
President Biden speaks to reporters as he departs the White House.
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
The deal refers to payment for taking part in a drone operation which the paid participants will not have knowledge of or care what the ultimate goal of this drone onslaught is.
So what is the end goal. The first goal is to condition the public to think the behavior of these numerous mysterious drones is normal. Not normal of course. But the globalist controlled msm will just keep pumping out the government lies 24/7 confident that no matter how big a lie they tell, if told often enough the public will believe it. Or at least the democrat voters will.
Once the first goal has been achieved then the globalists can have their deep state puppets drone strike and kill Donald Trump before he becomes president. They will most likely blame Iran. The story will be some how Iran snuck one of their drones in the midst of all of the imaginary drone sightings and killed Donald Trump. And of course they will say if is difficult to defend against a drone attack, not our fault blah, blah, blah.
Desperate people do desperate things. They cannot allow Trump to reveal the Jeffry Epstein and Sean “Diddy” Combs client lists. Same for the John F. Kennedy assassination documents. Or to remove their deep state crooks in the intelligence departments. Their first two assassination attempts failed. And I believe this entire drone campaign and the Biden administration nothing to see here lies are a part of their third attempt to assassinate Donald Trump.
The timing and enormity of this entire drone charade along with the Biden administration’s blatant lies tells me the globalist puppet masters are up to no good. And Donald Trump is their target. I hope I am wrong. But that is what I see happening here.
Dr. Steven Greer an emergency doctor offers the explanation that these mysterious drone sightings are our drones and China’s drones. Says China is a co-conspirator in this farce. And their purpose is to create a false flag event to create world wide fear of aliens attacking earth in order to usher in a world government. He never comes right out and says this is Project Blue Beam. But that is what he is saying in essence that these drone sightings are a part of Project Blue Beam, a conspiracy theory you can look up easily.
He never says what the false flag event is because he doesn’t know. My previous post explains what I consider will be the false flag event which is the assassination of Donald Trump.
I would never have mentioned Dr. Steven Greer’s claims since for many years he has made many wild claims about UFOs and hidden technologies that will solve all of mankind’s problems if the governments of the world would just reveal these secrets. But nothing ever gets revealed or proven. He’s like the boy who cried wolf.
But in this case see below video, he actually says between now and the January 20, 2025 inauguration date there will be a big reveal by some high level military people at black sites. These people will come forward and fully identify themselves, “name, rank and serial number nothing held back in terms of their identity”. Greer says it will be the “most significant Earth shattering disclosure in human history”, Supposedly these people at great risk to themselves will come forward with evidence that all of these drones and many UFOs we see are actually man made not alien and that we have reverse engineered UFO technology to such a level that we now have man made advanced aircraft that are virtually indistinguishable from actual alien UFOs. Like I said lots of wild claims. But finally a clear prediction from Dr. Greer and a timeline of some incredible sounding event. Will this be another unsubstantiated wild claim by Dr. Greer? Just 21 more days to find out. I also list his web site below.
See
BREAKING NEWS! WHAT THE DRONES REALLY ARE! Dr. Steven Greer FULL DISCLOSURE LIVE! Michael Sandler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXSJmtOUGJM
See Dr, Greer’s web site.
drstevengreer.com
Daisy I see that my comment I made here on 12-31-2024 never got posted. Why is that?
Thank you for bringing that to my attention – it went to the wrong folder and I didn’t see it. It’s published now.
Thank You Daisy.
It would be a very good idea if you had an article on the California fires that started on January 7, 2025 in Los Angeles Pacific Palisades and today January 11, 2025 the fires are still raging there and in many other places.
Yes, according to ABC News Jan 10, 2025, “the Pacific Palisades fires 3 days later are only 8% contained. And the Eaten fire in Altadena and Pasadena is now the most destructive in La history believed to have destroyed more than 7,000 structures homes and businesses just 3% contained”
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass cut $17.6 million from the fire department’s 2024-2025 fiscal year budget. Bass originally wanted to cut the fire department’s funding by nearly $23 million, according to a proposed budget published by the mayor’s office. Bass was in Africa when the fires started and a day after the fires started finally arrived at the airport. When asked why she was in Africa and why she cut the Los Angeles fire department budget her response was unbelievable. See time stamp 5:37 of the below Watson video for her response.
Gavin Newsom denies any responsibility for these fires which so far have claimed 10 lives, but he lies. Donald Trump warned Newsom repeatedly about the poor fire prevention in California as far back as 2018. See time stamp 2:47 in the Watson video and in other places in the video. Actually the whole video is worth watching.
See also the Scott Rodd article below.
Gavin Newsom decides instead of spending money on fire prevention, he decides to give 6.5 billion dollars to illegals for free healthcare.
See also the House floor, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) video below where Kiley blasts Newsom for his lies about forest management.
Elon Musk’s comments on these fires are worth reading also.
The videos of homes burning with their roofs on fire makes me wonder if a few embers on a roof can cause a roof to catch fire easily. Homes in wildfire prone areas are required by law to have more fire resistant roofs than other homes not located in wildfire prone areas. Perhaps you can find an expert on this subject to say whether it is true that a few embers on an asphalt shingle roof can cause it to catch fire as if the roof was made of tissue paper. From the videos I have seen that seems to be the case. What do experts say about how fire resistant are different types of asphalt shingle roof? What should people do to make their homes safer from fires.
Aerial photos of entire neighborhoods completely destroyed, looks like something from a war zone in World War II. Just complete destruction. And as of today fires are still raging and not contained and even more fires have broken out. I would say that these fires have bankrupted California. But Gavin Newsom had already plunged California over 73 billion dollars in debt before the fires. So many peoples lives destroyed.
So how will the msm spin news about the California fires disaster and some how blame Donald Trump for it?
See the CNN video below “Trump blames Biden and Gov. Newsom for Los Angeles wildfires” where they take a comment Trump made out of context and try to create fear mongering that Donald Trump will not provide disaster relief for California when he becomes president. Almost every or perhaps every single disaster that happened under Biden Trump was there to help. Why is the CNN globalist puppet news network still around?
And lastly I hope the democrats choose Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass to run for president and vice president in the next presidential election. They are typical democrats, liars and incompetent. Or more accurately some would say, people who are deliberately trying to destroy this country while the msm runs cover for them. What they are doing to California on purpose is obvious to people who haven’t been brainwashed by the globalist controlled msm.
See
Homes still bursting into flames in LA days after the initial fire passed through
ABC News Jan 10, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5TgPbOZBpg
See
Yes, Los Angeles cut $17.6 million from the fire department’s budget
January 9, 2025
https://www.9news.com/article/news/verify/money-verify/yes-los-angeles-cut-176-million-from-the-lafd-fire-departments-budget/536-4b902910-08f5-42d5-bc5e-bdfad1cb0560
See
The Truth About The Wildfires
Paul Joseph Watson Jan 9, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHh-_3FshO4&t=336s
See
Gov. Gavin Newsom Retreats On $1 Billion Wildfire Prevention Plan Ahead Of Meeting With President Biden
by Scott Rodd Tuesday, June 29, 2021 | Sacramento, CA
https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/29/gov-gavin-newsom-retreats-on-1-billion-wildfire-prevention-plan-ahead-of-meeting-with-president-biden/
Last week, CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom reported Newsom overstated, by an astounding 690%, the number of acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns in the very projects he said needed to be prioritized to protect the state’s most vulnerable communities. The governor has claimed that 35 “priority projects” carried out as a result of a January 2019 executive order resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres. But the state’s own data show the actual number of acres “treated” through fuel reduction or prescribed burns was 11,399.
See
California becomes first state to offer health insurance to all undocumented immigrants
By Mary Kekatos December 29, 2023, 1:22 PM
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/california-1st-state-offer-health-insurance-undocumented-immigrants/story?id=105986377
“It will cost the state over $6.5 billion annually to provide Medi-Cal to all undocumented immigrants, according to the most recent analysis by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office,”
See
BREAKING NEWS: Kevin Kiley Accuses Gavin Newsom Of Lying About Forest Management As Wildfires Rage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU0sOBeC2YY
Forbes Breaking News 3.96M subscribers Jan 9, 2025
During remarks on the House floor, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) condemned California’s state government’s forest management approach, and firefighting regulations as wildfires continue to burn in and around Los Angeles.
See
Elon: “We Could Have Saved A Lot Of Tragedy In LA”
Steve Watson 9th January 2025
https://modernity.news/2025/01/09/elon-we-could-have-saved-a-lot-of-tragedy-in-la/
See
Trump blames Biden and Gov. Newsom for Los Angeles wildfires
CNN Jan 9, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06O7T1_u_u8