AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/Gray News) – A radioactive wasp nest was discovered in South Carolina by workers at a site that was once used to produce nuclear material.
A report from the U.S. Department of Energy states workers found the wasp nest on July 3 on a stanchion near a tank at the Savannah River Site.
When the nest was probed, it was discovered to be highly radioactive, according to the report.
While it does sound like something out of a comic book or horror movie, the report says this was not related to a loss of contamination control at the nuclear facility.
Instead, the wasp nest is considered a victim of “legacy radioactive contamination.”
The nest was sprayed in order to kill the wasps, and was then bagged as radiological waste.
The report states that the ground and surrounding area did not have any contamination.
The Savannah River Site was built in the 1950s near Aiken and covers more than 300 square miles.
During the Cold War, the Savannah River Site produced nuclear material and nuclear weapons components.
It became an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in 1989, with cleanup and environmental remediation going on ever since.
In recent years, the National Nuclear Security Administration has begun work on a facility there to produce new plutonium cores for American nuclear weapons.
The agency plans to build at least 50 new plutonium cores per year in the new facility.
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