Fact-check: Drones were not tracking missing radioactive material in New Jersey
A theory that "missing" radioactive material in New Jersey could be linked to the string of mysterious "drone" sightings in the state has been disproven, according to the Department of Energy and related officials.
The link between the alleged drone sightings and radioactive material stemmed from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issuing an alert on Dec. 5 that stated a piece of medical equipment used for cancer scans had been "lost in transit" three days prior.
The mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, Michael Melham further stoked these theories during an appearance on Fox TV's "Good Day New York" on Tuesday, saying, of the drone sightings, "What might they be looking for? Maybe that's radioactive material."
"It was a shipment. It arrived at its destination. The container was damaged, and it was empty," Melham said.
The shipping container in question departed from the Nazha Cancer Center in Newfield, New Jersey, and contained an Eckert & Ziegler model HEGL-0132 device that arrived at its destination "damaged and empty," according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's original notice.
The device contains trace amounts of the radioactive isotope Germanium-68, which is used as a radiation source for one of the cancer center's CAT scan machines.
James Dalzell, M.D., at the Nazha Cancer Center, told ABC News on Tuesday that the missing material has been found and has been disposed of properly.
Dalzell said the equipment was shipped via Fed-Ex, which temporarily misplaced the item. It was later found and delivered to the manufacturer.
Dalzell explained that the material was depleted ahead of its transport to the disposal facility. While there were still trace amounts of radiation, it was so low that they only needed to wrap in a few layers of Styrofoam to render it safe for transport.
In a statement to ABC News on Tuesday the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said the device has a "very low-level radiation source that is approved for shipping through common carriers like FedEx" and "has been located, repackaged, and sent to the manufacturer from the FedEx shipping facility where it was misplaced."
Additionally, the NJDEP said drones were not used to locate the radioactive material in question.
Further disproving the now-viral theory, a spokesperson at the National Nuclear Security Administration, an agency within the federal energy department that works on the nuclear stockpile, told ABC News the administration's Nuclear Emergency Support Team does not use drones for nuclear detection missions.
"The Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration's Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) does not employ drones for nuclear/radiological detection missions, and is not currently conducting any aerial operations in that region," the spokesperson said.
ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
