Atomic Energy Commission UFO materials claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 29 April 2020 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Tim McMillan, David Grusch |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 196 |
| Year | 2020 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2020 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 13 |
In April 2020 journalist Tim McMillan said on social media that an anonymous source who had worked for Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) under the Pentagon's AAWSAP programme claimed the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) had held UFO crash materials since 1947 and transferred them to Lockheed in 1977.[1][2]
The claim
According to McMillan's account of the source, the AEC — the civilian agency created in 1946 to control U.S. nuclear research and run the national laboratories — had held the materials from 1947, and the source linked the 1977 transfer to Lockheed with President Jimmy Carter's reorganisation of federal energy agencies. McMillan, a retired police lieutenant who later founded the news site The Debrief, said he was certain the source had worked for BAASS, but stressed that he had no supporting evidence and did not treat the claims as fact.[1][2]
Response
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Physicist Eric Davis, who worked on the AAWSAP programme, authorised a statement calling McMillan's source ill-informed and suggesting the Lockheed claims might be fabricated or rumour. Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid later told The New Yorker he had been told for decades that Lockheed had some retrieved materials, but in July 2020 said he had no knowledge that the government held debris from other worlds.[2]
Assessment
The source is anonymous, and no documents support the claim. The idea that the Energy Department or its predecessors held UAP material later became part of broader allegations, but the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office reported in March 2024 that it found no verifiable evidence of such holdings.[2][3]
People and topics
- Department of Energy — The U.S. department that runs the nuclear weapons laboratories.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Tim McMillan — Journalist and co-founder of The Debrief.
- The Debrief — A news site covering UAP and science.
- BAASS — The Bigelow Aerospace division that carried out the AAWSAP contract.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Los Alamos National Laboratory — The New Mexico laboratory where the atomic bomb was designed.
- David Grusch — Former intelligence officer who testified in 2023 that the U.S. has recovered non-human craft.
On the Timeline
- Sarfatti's slow-light Tic Tac theory (20 March 2020) — Physicist Jack Sarfatti suggests the Tic Tac used a metamaterial that slows light.
- Gradisher–Gough FOIA coordination emails (10 July 2020) — A Navy spokesman's email shows efforts to coordinate FOIA replies about UAP across agencies.
See every 2020 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Tim McMillan, post on a BAASS source (Twitter/X, Apr 2020) · twitter.com · archived copy
- "Senator Harry Reid and Lockheed", UFO Joe (May 2021) · ufojoe.net · archived copy
- "Pentagon UFO office finds 'no empirical evidence' for alien technology in new report", Space.com (Mar 2024) · space.com · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP/AAWSAP) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Glowing auras and 'black money': the Pentagon's mysterious UFO program — New York Times (2017) · nytimes.com · archived copy
- The origins of AAWSAP — Metabunk · metabunk.org · archived copy
- DIA FOIA reading room (AAWSAP technical reports) · dia.mil · archived copy
- AAWSAP documentation (FOIA) — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- The Debrief (Tim McMillan's outlet) · thedebrief.org · archived copy
- Documents on the vetting of 'Skinwalkers at the Pentagon' — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: book review — Bad UFOs (Robert Sheaffer) · badufos.blogspot.com · archived copy
- AARO Report on the Historical Record, Volume I — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- twitter.com · twitter.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Robert Bigelow — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Skunk Works — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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