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Multiple radioactive WASP nests have been recently discovered at a South Carolina site that once played a central role in the production of US nuclear bombs, according to federal officials and media reports.
As of August 1, at least four nests had been discovered at a facility on the Savanna River, a nuclear facility near Aiken, known for producing plutonium and tritium during the Cold War.
Workers found the first nest on July 3, The Associated Press reported in a post near a tank with stored liquid nuclear waste. The nest was sprayed with insecticide, removed, and disposed of as radioactive waste. No z was found inside.
Tests reveal pollution levels 10 times the limit allowed by federal regulations.
The U.S. Department of Energy, which owns the facility, said in its official report that the nest was contaminated with “legacy radioactive contamination at the site,” the term refers to residual radiation that has remained since the site’s weapons production era. The report emphasized that contamination was not caused by leaks or loss of control.
Three additional nests were subsequently discovered at the nuclear facility, according to the New York Times.
Workers at the K Regional Composite Nuclear Materials Management Facility on the Savannah River site are an integral part of the Department of Energy’s non-proliferation and environmental cleanup mission. (Photo: Business Wire)
“The U.S. Department of Energy manages the discovery of four wasp nests with very low levels of radioactive contamination,” Edwin Deshong, manager of DOE’s Savannah River Operations Office, said in a statement in The Times. “The nest poses no health risks to SRS workers, communities or the environment.”
Timothy Musau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina who studied the effects of radiation on wildlife in Chernobyl and Fukushima, said the nest discovery should be considered a red flag. “This is an indicator of the spread of contaminants in this completely enclosed, unprotected area,” Musau said.
However, potentially contaminated wasps (what Muso called “hot wasps”) are likely to pose little direct risk to the public. Officials told the BBC that hornets in the nest have significantly lower radiation levels than the nest itself. Furthermore, hornets usually do not move far from the nest.
Musau said there is no evidence of public hazards, but the presence of radioactive nests increases the likelihood that previously undetected contaminants are present, or the possibility that older radioactive materials are resurfaced in unexpected ways.
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