At Former US Bomb Plant, a Radioactive Wasp Nest

Workers at a site in South Carolina that once made key parts for nuclear bombs have made quite a find: a radioactive wasp nest. Employees who routinely check radiation levels at the Savannah River Site near Aiken found the nest on July 3 on a post near tanks where liquid nuclear waste is stored, according to a report from the US Department of Energy. The nest had a radiation level 10 times what is allowed by federal regulations. The workers sprayed the nest with insect killer, removed it, and disposed of it as radioactive waste, reports the AP. No wasps were found.

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 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 nests out of dirt and others use different materials that could pinpoint where the contamination came from, said the group's Tom Clements. "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," he said. The tank farm is well inside the boundaries of the site, and wasps generally fly just a few hundred yards from their nests, so there is no danger they are outside the facility, according to the Savannah River Mission Completion, which now oversees the site.