Radioactive Wasps‘ Nests Found near a Nuclear Plant
On July 3, wasps were found in the Savanah River, South Carolina, with radioactive contamination. Nest became radioactive because of the 100,000 dpm/100 cm2 beta/gamma radiation levels detected, which is ten times the normal federal limits for the nuclear plant near it, therefore making some parts of the nest radioactive. The workers found this during a routine check-up and also found three more after this, all in the same area. All of this was documented on July 22, in the report sent to the US Department of Energy, which owns the plant.
Since the amount of radiation was ten times the federal limit, this place is under investigation for more. This can serve as a red flag for the area around it because since the nest was radioactive, the surrounding area might be as well, therefore harming the people and/or the ecosystem of South Carolina.
A total of four nests have been found so far, and they are all suspected to be radioactive because of something called “legacy radioactive contamination”. “Legacy radioactive contamination” is when some radioactive substance from a long time ago, in this case, suspected to be from the Cold War, sustains itself and continues to today. This is suspected because all of the waste barrels near it were sealed, without anything leaking out, or as the government says. Therefore, one of the only other possibilities for the wasp nest to be radioactive without any wastes near it is that it contained radiation from the Cold War. This is purely theoretical and made based on the surroundings, though.
The radiation is suspected to come from rotted logs that suffered some impacts during the war because wasps build nests by chewing wood into a pulp using their mandibles and constructing the nests, so for the nest to be radioactive, one of the most likely sources is from the wood from the Cold War that turned radioactive near this plant.
A major concern is that this will affect the ecosystem around it. According to biologist Timothy Mousseau who is someone who has studied the ecosystems of radioactive places around the world like Japan, Chernobyl, and Ukraine. He states that even though the manager of the operation office responsible for the area that the nests were found, which was Savannah River, said that the radiation of the nests can’t hurt the workers in any way or form, the “…discovery [of the nests] raised questions about the extent of the environmental contamination at the site.”
The nests can raise some serious concerns about the place near it in South Carolina, and might lead to discovering how much the ecosystem has deteriorated near it.
Sources:
https://app.letterly.io/api/letterly/documents/view?url=letterly%2Fdocuments%2Flink%2F42336
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3dpxr85228o
https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/08/radioactive-wasp-nests-spring-up-in-decadesold-nuclear-site-in-south-carolina
