AIKEN, S.C. — Workers at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina discovered a highly radioactive wasp nest earlier this month, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report.
The nest was found on July 3 on a stanchion near a tank farm at the nuclear facility. When workers probed the nest, they determined it was highly radioactive.
Workers sprayed the nest to kill the wasps and then bagged it as radiological waste.
According to the report, the ground and surrounding area showed no contamination.
While the discovery might sound like something from a comic book or horror movie, officials said it's not related to a loss of contamination control at the facility. Instead, the wasp nest is considered a victim of "legacy radioactive contamination."
The Savannah River Site was built in the 1950s near Aiken, South Carolina. During the Cold War, the site produced nuclear material and nuclear weapons components.
It became an EPA Superfund site in 1989, with cleanup and environmental remediation continuing since then.
In recent years, the National Nuclear Security Administration has begun work on a facility at the site to produce new plutonium cores for American nuclear weapons.
