FBI continues to track down plutonium allegedly sold by Hadley man

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26-06-2025

SPRINGFIELD — Federal investigators told a judge last week that they are continuing to assess what the customers who allegedly purchased small amounts of plutonium from a Hadley man did with the material.
On April 22, a federal grand jury indicted Jacob Miller, 43, on charges of being a felon in possession of explosives and ammunition. Prosecutors said when investigators searched Miller's home, they found firearms, hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials, including plutonium taken from Soviet Union-era smoke detectors.
Prosecutors said Miller ran an online business called Collect The Periodic Table. A website that appears to be connected with the enterprise lists a full periodic table for $140. A small amount of plutonium alone was listed for $500.
The affidavit filed with the federal court in Springfield last week disclosed the FBI's ongoing investigation into the matter. Miller allegedly shipped out plutonium about 60 times between December 2020 and March 2025, FBI Special Agent Darrell Hunter said in the affidavit dated June 20.
'The defendant's distribution of Plutonium to a broad series of individuals, with no apparent vetting of these customers, poses a particular danger to public safety,' Hunter wrote.
Miller, the affidavit said, shipped the material across the United States and out of the country.
So far, only 10 of the customers gave the material they purchased from Miller to the FBI, Hunter said.
'The FBI's investigation into this matter, including the extent to which the defendant distributed Plutonium and what the defendant's customers did with the Plutonium, is continuing,' Hunter wrote.
Reached for comment, a spokeswoman for the FBI referred questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office. A spokesperson at the U.S. Attorney's Office did not reply to a request for comment.
John Gilbert, a senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, while the small amounts allegedly sold by Miller is nowhere near the amount needed for a nuclear bomb, plutonium is deadly if handled incorrectly.
If its powder is breathed in — even in small amounts — it causes 'extremely, extremely bad respiratory distress,' he said.
Gilbert said it is unlikely the material prosecutors said came from smoke detectors was plutonium, as the Soviets 'needed all the plutonium they could get.' Rather, another radioactive element — americium — is good for use in smoke detectors, and it is not as dangerous, he said.
The FBI said in its affidavit it is gathering the materials it obtained from Miller's customers 'for radiological testing.'
Federal prosecutors filed the affidavit as part of their response to Miller's defense attorney, who requested Judge Katherine Robertson reconsider her order detaining Miller until his trial. Miller was detained after prosecutors said Miller moved materials from his home after the court said he could only reenter the home to retrieve personal care items, clothing and his cat.
Miller's attorney, Charles Dolan, asked Robertson in a motion on June 13 to release his client 'under whatever conditions the Court may deem appropriate.'
Miller, Dolan wrote, has been held since April 10 at a detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and has been unable to take his medication for obsessive-compulsive disorder and ADHD as his prescriptions are prohibited at the facility. His mental health has deteriorated as a result, Dolan wrote.
Dolan did not return a request for comment.
In response to the motion, prosecutors said Miller had a history of violating probation conditions, and they are continuing to investigate him for possession of child sex abuse images. Miller was previously convicted for possessing child pornography and explosives in separate cases in Hampshire Superior Court.
Prosecutors also shared with the court a series of handwritten documents — including what prosecutors said appeared to a poem titled 'Bits and Pieces.'
The 'defendant appears to have engaged in dangerous musings about blowing up friends and family in Hadley, among other subjects,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Breslow wrote in a memorandum.
At a hearing Wednesday, Robertson decided that Miller would remain detained, according to the clerk's notes of the proceedings.
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