A radioactive wasp nest was discovered at the Savannah River nuclear facility in South Carolina on July 3. The radiation level in it exceeded the permissible level by ten times.
The BBC writes about this.
The nest was found on a pole near a storage facility that holds millions of gallons of liquid nuclear waste. The US Department of Energy said the nest was sprayed to kill the wasps and then packaged as radioactive waste. No wasps were found nearby.
Investigators say the contamination is not related to a nuclear waste leak and there was no impact on “the environment or the population”. The nest’s high radiation levels are attributed to so-called residual radioactive contamination at the site — radioactivity left over from the time the facility produced components for nuclear weapons.
The Department of Energy report notes that the wasps living in the nest had significantly lower levels of radiation than the nest itself. It also notes that wasps typically fly only a few hundred meters from their nest, and the nest itself was found in the center of the 800 square kilometer facility, so the likelihood that they flew outside its boundaries is minimal.
DOE
The Savannah River Site Watch, which monitors the site, said many questions remain unanswered.
"Iʼm as angry as a hornet that the administration hasnʼt explained where the radioactive waste came from and whether there is any leak from the waste tanks that the public should be aware of," spokesman Tom Clements told the Associated Press.
- The Savannah River facility opened in the 1950s to produce plutonium for nuclear bombs. The facility continues to operate today, but focuses on nuclear material for power plants.
- Once upon a time, a nuclear repository was created there for over 625 million liters of liquid nuclear waste; 43 underground tanks are still in use, while eight have been closed.
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