The US Department of Energy has reported the discovery of a radioactive wasp nest at the Savannah River site in South Carolina, a former nuclear weapons production facility. The nest was found on 3 July near tanks used to store liquid nuclear waste, and was subsequently destroyed and disposed of as radiological waste.
According to a department report dated 22 July, testing confirmed radiation levels more than ten times the total contamination values permitted by federal regulations. The contamination was attributed to 'onsite legacy radioactive contamination' and not a loss of contamination control. The ground and surrounding area showed no contamination, and no further action was deemed necessary.
The Savannah River Mission Completion, which oversees the site, stated that radiological control staff discovered the nest during routine monitoring. The nest was sprayed and surveyed, and no wasps were found on it. The immediate area was secured and surveyed, with no contamination detected. Officials noted that wasps typically travel only a few hundred yards from their nest.
Tom Clements, executive director of the Savannah River Site Watch watchdog group, expressed concern that the department did not explain the source of the radioactive waste or whether there might be a leak from the waste tanks. The Savannah River site, built in the early 1950s, produced plutonium and tritium for nuclear weapons until the end of the Cold War, after which it shifted to environmental cleanup and nuclear materials management.
The nest was found in the 'F-Area Tank Farm', which contains 22 underground carbon steel tanks, each capable of holding between 750,000 and 1.3 million gallons of radioactive waste. The Department of Energy assured that there were no impacts to workers, the environment, or the public.
