The Federal Aviation Administration said this week that it would add seven federal nuclear sites to its no-fly list for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones.
The FAA has already banned drone flights over 10 national attractions, such as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the Statute of Liberty in New York and Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. A recent ban added 133 military facilities to the list and in August the Pentagon announced it would shoot down drones that threaten to interfere with military flights or breached security at its bases, said a Reuters report.
In early December, the National Transportation Safety Board acknowledged an incident in which a hobbyist with an UAV intentionally flew his drone out of visual range. It collided with a U.S. Army UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter near Staten Island, New York. It caused minor, but threatening damage to the helicopter, as parts of the drone became lodged in the chopper's oil cooler fan.
The ban on federal nuclear sites – including the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Hanford Site in Washington state, Idaho National Laboratory, Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, Pantex Site in Texas, the Y-12 National Security Site and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee – begins December 29.
The national monuments ban also includes the USS Constitution in Boston, Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, Hoover Dam in Nevada and the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington.