[This post is a copied version of my article on Medium.com on January 15, 2022. Therefore, the formatting is off at some places in this post. J. T]
Five days after my article about the need for the European Union to address the UFO and nuclear-weapons connection, incursions of unknown flying objects over three civilian nuclear facilities in Sweden (see map below) were major news in Swedish mainstream media (obviously, there is no connection between the incursions in question and my previous article).
In what follows, I will first summarize the story as reported by some Swedish news outlets, and then make some comments about the reported story. Here you can find a good coverage of the story by The Drive/The Warzone.
The story: drones or something else?
Swedish public service television (SVT) report on January 15 that a guard at Forsmark nuclear plant on Friday 14, 2022, at 8:20 P.M. local time, alarmed about a “larger drone” that could “withstand strong winds”. The guard saw the larger drone “fly in over” the Forsmark nuclear plant. When a police patrol arrived to the nuclear plant, they first sighted the larger drone at 8:51 P.M. The police searched the larger drone with a helicopter, but “lost contact with the drone” at 10:10 P.M. According to SVT, the police had “not found any indications of the drone landing inside the protected area of the nuclear plant or that it dropped any objects from the air” (the article by SVT was latest updated at 2:54 P.M., January 15).
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| Forsmark nuclear plant (right, at the top) is a final repository for radioactive waste. Oskarshamn's nuclear plant had a drone incursion at the same time as Forsmark. Ringhals nuclear plant (left, at the top) also seem to have had a drone incursion at the same time (Friday 14, around 7:00–8:00 P.M.), but the reports are more uncertain than in the two other cases. The distance between Oskarshamn and Forsmark is approximately 475 kilometers (km), and between Ringhals and Oskarshamn approximately 300 km. Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, report that personnel at Oskarshamn’s nuclear plant, at 7:00 P.M. alarmed about “something that seemed to be a drone flying over the nuclear plant-area”. Aftonbladet also reports that after 9:00 P.M. on Friday 14, guards at Ringhals nuclear plant alarmed the police “after hearing something that sounded like a drone flying over the area”. But after searching for the flying object with a helicopter with no results, the police state that “it is not possible to confirm whether the object was a drone”. Also, the police made a search on the nuclear plant in the south, Barsebäck (left, at the bottom in the map above), after “an eventual sighting of a drone had been made by the personnel” at the nuclear plant. [The formatting is off; it should be a normal paragraph. J. T] |
My comments on the story
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Aerial photo of Forsmark nuclear plant. Credit: visitforsmark.se. |
If 10, 8 to 13, 8 m/s is a reasonable estimate of the wind strength, then whatever the object was, it had to have been quite robust. For people who are not familiar with the Swedish climate, I can say that at this time of the year the sun set around 5:30 P.M. at the location of Forsmark nuclear plant. So it was dark outside when the guard at Forsmark sighted (at 8:00 P.M.) the larger drone and when the police searched for it with a helicopter (the search lasted for approx. one hour and ended at 10:10 P.M.).
Besides the darkness, and perhaps the wind, the visibility seems to have been good in the evening at Forsmark on January 14. In no news reports have I found any details of what people observed (shapes, lights, sound, flight characteristics, etc.) on the different locations of the incursions.
Thus, the data is inadequate (scant and unclear). You cannot draw any certain conclusions about what the unknown flying objects are or are not. Not even in the “strongest” case of Forsmark nuclear plant.
But there are two strange circumstances in this Swedish “drones at nuclear plants” story. The first is, of course, that several nuclear facilities had incursions on the same day and approximately at the same time: the police have confirmed incursions at Forsmark and Oskarshamn’s nuclear plant. Ringhals nuclear plant seems to have had some kind of drone incident, but here the reports are even more scant.
There is, however, another circumstance that I have not mentioned above. During this second week of January, the Swedish Armed Forces has mobilised on the island, Gotland (see map below), because of increased Russian military activity in the area (in the air, sea, and on mainland, for instance, Kaliningrad). Put this situation in a broader geopolitical context of deteriorating relations between Nato and Russia (due to, for instance, Russia’s presence in Ukraine).
But there are two strange circumstances in this Swedish “drones at nuclear plants” story. The first is, of course, that several nuclear facilities had incursions on the same day and approximately at the same time: the police have confirmed incursions at Forsmark and Oskarshamn’s nuclear plant. Ringhals nuclear plant seems to have had some kind of drone incident, but here the reports are even more scant.
There is, however, another circumstance that I have not mentioned above. During this second week of January, the Swedish Armed Forces has mobilised on the island, Gotland (see map below), because of increased Russian military activity in the area (in the air, sea, and on mainland, for instance, Kaliningrad). Put this situation in a broader geopolitical context of deteriorating relations between Nato and Russia (due to, for instance, Russia’s presence in Ukraine).
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The pin shows the island, Gotland. Oskarshamn’s nuclear plant is approximately 120 km southwest of Gotland. Forsmark nuclear plant is between Stockholm and Gävle. |
Above mentioned, makes me think that the “UFOs” over Swedish nuclear plants may very well be a coordinated military operation by Russia. Or is the explanation that some Swedish drone-enthusiasts came up with a bold (or foolish) plan (prank) that they could not resist executing? Or is the Swedish military testing its drones and/or the security at the nuclear plants in question? In any case, at the moment, “the larger drone” and the other sighted “drones”, are technically Unidentified Flying Objects or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) (according to me; neither the Swedish police nor the military have used the terms UFO or UAP).
But I believe the most probable explanation to the “UFO” incursions over Swedish nuclear plants is terrestrial. That is, human activity is likely the best explanation of the incursions on January 14, 2022. Nonetheless, it is a remarkable story, and I am not aware of anything similar being reported in Swedish mainstream media (Forsmark has had several drone incidents before, but I am not aware of reports of incidents/incursions on several nuclear plants at the same time).
What remains to be seen is whether the Swedish public will know the whole story and a truthful explanation of what flew over and around several Swedish nuclear plants on January 14, 2022. A safe bet is that we will not. I can only hope that some Swedish investigative journalist will prove us wrong.
But I believe the most probable explanation to the “UFO” incursions over Swedish nuclear plants is terrestrial. That is, human activity is likely the best explanation of the incursions on January 14, 2022. Nonetheless, it is a remarkable story, and I am not aware of anything similar being reported in Swedish mainstream media (Forsmark has had several drone incidents before, but I am not aware of reports of incidents/incursions on several nuclear plants at the same time).
What remains to be seen is whether the Swedish public will know the whole story and a truthful explanation of what flew over and around several Swedish nuclear plants on January 14, 2022. A safe bet is that we will not. I can only hope that some Swedish investigative journalist will prove us wrong.
Take care!
J. T
