Case file · Sighting
Drones over French nuclear plants
From October 2014, unidentified small drones were seen at night over more than a dozen French nuclear power stations, in what looked like a coordinated campaign.
2014 CE · 45.76, 5.47 · status: unexplained
The account
EDF filed complaints and the Gendarmerie investigated; few operators were ever identified. Paris landmarks were overflown in early 2015. The affair led to new counter-drone rules.
The sceptical view
These were small hobby or commercial drones, not exotic craft; what remains unknown is who flew them and why.
The researched reading
A wave of real drone overflights of nuclear plants. The mystery is who flew them, and whether some were a deliberate probe, not what they were.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | Gendarmes, plant security and EDF staff saw small drones at close range at many sites; consumer drones were cheap and largely unregulated in 2014, even though overflying a French nuclear plant was already a crime. |
| Secret human technology | 28% | The coordination, night flights and choice of sensitive sites led officials to consider a deliberate test of defences by activists, a criminal group or a foreign service; this was never settled. |
| Undetermined | 16% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 6% | Once the story broke, some reports were likely aircraft or stars, inflating the count. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 6% | Copycat flights and pranks after the press coverage probably added to the wave. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 2% | The objects were drones; only their operators are unknown. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 1% | The objects were clearly drones. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 1% | Not applicable. |
Official position: EDF filed complaints and the Gendarmerie investigated; few operators were identified.