A radioactive wasp nest has been discovered near a former nuclear weapon manufacturing facility in South Carolina.
The nest was found by workers at the Savannah River Site in Aiken County, according to a report from the Department of Energy.
According to reports, the contaminated nest was found on July 3, just before 2 p.m., by Radiological Control Operations workers during routine inspections.
Located on a stanchion near a tank in the F-Area tank farm, the nest registered a staggering 100,000 disintegrations per minute (dpm), a level described as “moderately high” radiation.
Workers promptly sprayed the nest to eliminate the wasps, which were then bagged and disposed of as radiological waste.
The Associated Press reports:
The report said there is no leak from the waste tanks, and the nest was likely radioactive through what it called “onsite legacy radioactive contamination” from the residual radioactivity left from when the site was fully operational.
The watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch said the report was at best incomplete since it doesn’t detail where the contamination came from, how the wasps might have encountered it and the possibility there could be another radioactive nest if there is a leak somewhere.
Knowing the type of wasp nest could also be critical — some wasps make nest out of dirt and others use different material which could pinpoint where the contamination came from, Tom Clements, executive director of the group, wrote in a text message.
Thankfully, no contamination was detected in the surrounding ground or area, but the very presence of radioactive insects highlights the persistent threats from “onsite legacy contamination” tied to the site’s history of producing plutonium and tritium for nuclear bombs during the Cold War era.
“I’m as mad as a hornet that SRS didn’t explain where the radioactive waste came from or if there is some kind of leak from the waste tanks that the public should be aware of,” Clements told AP.
The Savannah River Site, a massive 310-square-mile complex built in the 1950s, was once a key player in America’s nuclear arsenal buildup.
Designated an EPA Superfund site in the 1980s, billions in taxpayer dollars have been poured into cleanup efforts, but incidents like this wasp nest prove that radioactive remnants are still lurking.
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