"I'm not a physicist but did he try moving it away from the nuclear reactor?"
While I don't know the details of the case, the problem when dealing with particles that can pass through the entire Earth as if it's not there is that "next to" can take fairly large values. In order to move it far enough away it could well have needed to move to a different campus or town rather than just to the next room or even building. That's not necessarily easy, especially if it's a fairly small experiment and the person running it has many other things to do, many of which may be considered more important.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
