Radioactive wasp nests at SC nuclear site raise worries about possible contamination, leaks

The buzz about radioactive wasps at a Cold War-era nuclear site in South Carolina just won’t die.

Investigators found “hot” nests inside a nuclear weapons facility in South Carolina, with scientists warning it could be evidence of a possible leak or contamination that wasn’t previous detected.

The US Department of Energy said the nests are not believed to pose a risk to workers or the surrounding community.

“This is an indicator that there are contaminants spread across this area that have not been completely encased and protected,” Dr. Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, told the New York Times.

A total of four contaminated nests have now been found at the facility near Aiken, around 20 miles east of Augusta, Georgia, according to federal officials.

A first nest was discovered by workers at the Savannah River Site (SRS) — which produced material for nuclear weapons during the Cold War — in early July, as disclosed in a report from the Department of Energy, which owns the site.

The discovery of a further three radioactive wasp nests “indicate[s] that much greater effort must be made to assess the possible risks and hazards of what appears to be a significant source of radioactive pollutants,” Mousseau, who has studied the effect of radiation on wildlife in Chernobyl and Fukushima, told the Times.

“This could indicate that there is some new or old radioactive contamination that is coming to the surface that was unexpected,” he said.

Wasps usually don’t venture farther than 100 yards from their nests — so Mousseau said the risk of a member of the public being stung by a radioactive wasp is low.

He suggested that one simple explanation for the radiation readings on that nest is that the insects found a discarded piece of contaminated wood and used some of the pulp to build their nests

This isn’t the first time evidence of contamination of local wildlife was found at the site.

In 2017, radioactive bird droppings were discovered on the roof of a building at the site, raising fears the animals were carrying nuclear contamination over large distances, according to a Department of Energy report at the time.

Officials say the radiation levels in the nests are low, and no risk is posed to workers.

“The US Department of Energy is managing the discovery of four wasp nests with very low levels of radioactive contamination,” the manager of the Energy Department’s office at Savannah River, Edwin Deshong, said in a statement.

“The nests do not pose a health risk to SRS workers, the community, or the environment,” he said.

Workers at the site uncovered the first radioactive wasp nest close to a tank used to store nuclear waste.

“The wasp nest was sprayed to kill wasps, then bagged as radioactive waste,” the federal report read.

“The ground and surrounded area did not have any contamination.”

The Savannah River Site was built in the 1950s at the start of the Cold War to produce materials for nuclear and hydrogen weapons, including plutonium and tritium.

After the end of the Cold War, production of material for nuclear weapons slowed down considerably.

In 1996, the Department of Energy began cleaning up the site, although progress has been slow.

Cleanup is not expected to be completed until 2065, according to the Department of Energy.