Radioactive wasps

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(article source)

 

AIKEN, S.C. —

Radioactive wasps, yes, you read that right, were found at a nuclear facility in South Carolina.

 

According to a report from the U.S. Department of Energy, just before 2 p.m. on July 3, Radiological Control Operations discovered a wasp nest on a post near a tank at the Savannah River Site in Aiken.

 

Officials said the nest was sprayed to kill the wasps. The nest was probed and discovered to be 100,000 dpm, which is a moderately high level of radiation.

 

The wasp nest is considered "onsite legacy radioactive contamination" and not related to a loss of contamination control. Legacy radioactive contamination is lingering radioactive contamination resulting from past activities. The Department of Energy did not list any other cause for the insect's contamination.

 

After the wasps were killed, they were bagged as radiological waste.

 

Officials said the ground and surrounding area did not have any contamination.

 

The incident did not cause any impact to other activities and operations at the facility.

About the Facility

The now 310-square-mile site was built in the 1950s to produce the basic materials used in the fabrication of nuclear weapons, primarily tritium and plutonium 239, during the Cold War.  Cleanup and environmental remediation began in the 1980s after it became an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site.