Radioactive Wasp Nests found at Savannah River Site

radioactive substances. Reporters say that the radioactivity in the wasp’s nest is due to the contamination of radioactive waste that was left behind. The Savannah River Site is owned by the Department of Energy, which is part of the production of nuclear weapons. The site played a huge part in making nuclear weapons for the Cold War, producing up to 165 million gallons of nuclear waste. After the war, the Department of Energy was set to clear out the nuclear waste around the surrounding area, but the department stretched the due date for the completion. This caused leftover radioactive waste to be littered across the property.

After discovering the radioactive wasp nest and three more after, this phenomenon raised questions among the locals about how contaminated the site is. According to the New York Times, the wasps, even though radioactive, pose no serious threat to the public, since they do not fly far from their nest and do not carry a large amount of radioactivity. Dr. Mousseau suspected that the wasps picked up some material contaminated with radioactive substances and used it to make their nest. The radioactive material resulted in a radioactive wasp nest.

The Department of Energy also confirmed that the radioactive wasp nest was not caused by a leak, but rather by an “on-site legacy radioactive contamination.” “That’s a reasonable explanation,” said Dr. Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina. “There’s some legacy radioactive contamination sitting around in the mud in the bottom of the lakes, or, you know, here and there,” he said. However, the Savannah River Site is hiding details on the radioactive wasp nests, leading people to question if there is a bigger problem than the department is letting on. Dr. Mousseau is currently investigating the main concern, which is whether there is a large area that is affected by leftover nuclear waste.

In 2017, a worker had found radioactive bird droppings on the roof of a building. Birds can carry radioactivity long distances, spreading it around the land. “We would like to know a lot more about what this actually represents, and just how common it is and whether there is any evidence of these radionuclides being moved through the ecosystem,” Dr. Mousseau said. The finding of the radioactive wasp nests is not the biggest problem but is a wake-up call to a bigger problem that should be surveilled and investigated more.