Radioactive wasps nest sparks urgent warning at Cold War nuclear weapon site
An unusual discovery at a former Cold War nuclear weapons facility in South Carolina has triggered alarm bells, with scientists warning it could mean contaminants are leaking. Four wasp nests contaminated with radioactive material at the Savannah River Site (SRS), a sprawling, 310-square-mile complex near Aiken, South Carolina, have been discovered.
The site, once used to produce plutonium and tritium for nuclear weapons, is now primarily focused on environmental cleanup - a project the US Department of Energy (DOE) says won't be completed until 2065.
The first of the nests was discovered in early July by workers near a nuclear waste tank. The wasps were exterminated and the nest was disposed of as radioactive waste, according to a Department of Energy report. Three more contaminated nests have since been found in other parts of the site. It comes after the 'UK's most dangerous plant' leaves toddler in A&E with second-degree burns.
Although DOE officials maintain there is no danger to workers or the surrounding community, the findings sparked questions about lingering contamination at the site - and whether current cleanup efforts are sufficient.
'This is an indicator that there are contaminants spread across this area that have not been completely encased and protected,' Dr Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina told the New York Times.
Dr Mousseau, who has spent decades studying the ecological effects of nuclear radiation in Chernobyl and Fukushima, said the discovery raises the possibility that radioactive material, previously believed to be safely contained, may still be accessible to wildlife.
He warned that while the public is unlikely to be exposed to radioactive stings - since wasps rarely travel more than 100 yards from their nests - the insects are acting as accidental messengers of a deeper problem.
'This could indicate that there is some new or old radioactive contamination that is coming to the surface that was unexpected,' Dr Mousseau added.
One theory is that the wasps used pulp from discarded or contaminated wood to build their nests, inadvertently incorporating radioactive material into their hives.
The Department of Energy has tried to calm concern. Edwin Deshong, manager of the DOE's Savannah River office, confirmed in a statement that the nests had "very low levels" of radioactive contamination and posed "no health risk to SRS workers, the community, or the environment."
This isn't the first time wildlife at the SRS site has shown signs of contamination. In 2017, the DOE reported that radioactive bird droppings had been found on the roof of a site building, suggesting birds were picking up material and potentially carrying it far beyond the facility's borders.
The SRS has been undergoing cleanup since 1996, a slow and complex process given the age of the site and the scale of contamination.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
Scientists decry Trump energy chief's plan to ‘update' climate reports: ‘Exactly what Stalin did'
The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, is facing growing criticism from scientists who say their 'worst fears' were realized when Wright revealed that the Trump administration would 'update' the US's premier climate crisis reports. Wright, a former oil and gas executive, told CNN's Kaitlin Collins earlier this week that the administration was reviewing national climate assessment reports published by past governments. Produced by scientists and peer-reviewed, there have been five national climate assessment (NCA) reports since 2000 and they are considered the gold standard report of global heating and its impacts on human health, agriculture, water supplies and air pollution. 'We're reviewing them, and we will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those reports,' said Wright, who is one of the main supporters of the administration's 'drill, baby, drill' agenda to boost fossil fuels, which are the primary cause of the climate crisis. Wright was speaking days after his agency, the Department of Energy, produced a report claiming concern over the climate crisis was overblown. That energy department report was slammed by scientists for being a 'farce' full of misinformation. Speaking to CNN this week about the national climate assessment reports, Wright claimed they 'weren't fair in broad-based assessments of climate change'. He added: 'When you get into departments and look at stuff that's there and you find stuff that's objectionable, you want to fix it,' he said. In recent weeks the Trump administration deleted the website that hosted the periodic, legally mandated, national climate assessments (the most recent report is hosted on the Guardian website and can be read in full here). Asked about Wright's comments on the national climate assessment reports, respected climate scientist Michael Mann said in an emailed comment to the Guardian: 'This is exactly what Joseph Stalin did.' In a statement on Thursday, Dr Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, and one of the authors of the sixth NCA report due in 2028 that the administration dismissed earlier this year, was dismayed by Wright's comments. 'Secretary Wright just confirmed our worst fears – that this administration plans to not just bury the scientific evidence but replace it with outright lies to downplay the worsening climate crisis and evade responsibility for addressing it. 'The process for developing the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment reports is rigorous, with federal agencies and hundreds of scientists constructing this solid scientific foundation that decision makers, businesses and the public rely on to stay safe in a world made more perilous each day by climate change. 'People across the country are already reeling from climate-fueled worsening heatwaves, floods, wildfires and storms. Lying about that reality doesn't change it; it just leaves people in harm's way. We urge Congress to intervene to safeguard the integrity of the NCA reports so they remain vital, lifesaving tools in the fight against climate change.' The NCA reports are published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) and a Department of Energy spokesperson told CNN that Wright was 'not suggesting he personally would be altering past reports'. In May, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union said they would join forces to produce peer-reviewed research on the climate crisis's impact after the NCA contributors for the 2028 publication were dismissed. The energy department's climate report last week was published on the same day the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal to undo the 2009 'endangerment finding', which allows the agency to limit planet-heating pollution from cars and trucks, power plants and other industrial sources. This raised concerns that the Trump administration was attempting to scrap almost all pollution regulations in steps likely to trigger battles in the courts in the coming years.
Reuters
5 days ago
- Reuters
General Matter signs lease with US energy department to enrich uranium
Aug 5 (Reuters) - General Matter, a U.S. startup hoping to enrich uranium for fueling nuclear reactors, signed a lease with the Department of Energy on Tuesday to build a facility at a former federal plant in Kentucky. The $1.5-billion project will be at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The U.S. built the site in the 1950s to produce enriched uranium, initially for nuclear weapons. The facility later produced enriched uranium for nuclear reactors, but closed in 2013. Construction is expected to begin in 2026, with operations planned for 2034, the DOE said. The plant is expected to create about 140 permanent jobs, the company said. General Matter CEO Scott Nolan said reactivating the site would "power a new era of American energy independence." General Matter held a ceremony in Paducah attended by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, U.S. senators and representatives, and DOE officials. The company did not say how much enriched uranium it will produce. While UK-based Urenco has the capacity to supply about a third of U.S. commercial reactor needs of enriched uranium from a plant in New Mexico that is expanding, the U.S. is heavily dependent on foreign suppliers, including Russia. Former President Joe Biden put a ban on Russian enriched uranium imports that allows waivers until 2028. General Matter is one of several companies that have received DOE grants to produce both low-enriched uranium, or LEU, and a special fuel called high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. The companies need to get licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. HALEU could be used in high-tech reactors that plan to start operating around 2030. General Matter did not reveal the technology it plans to use to enrich uranium, nor the funding of the project. It said this year it was "incubated within" Founders Fund, a venture capital fund, in which Nolan is a partner. The DOE said the lease provides General Matter with at least 7,600 cylinders of uranium hexafluoride to supply fuel that can be enriched into reactor fuel. The process will save Americans about $800 million in avoided disposal costs, the DOE said. Global Laser Enrichment, a company owned by Silex Systems ( opens new tab and Cameco ( opens new tab that is one of six that won initial U.S. contracts to produce domestic uranium fuel, also plans to enrich uranium in Paducah. It plans to use lasers to enrich rather than centrifuges. "From a standpoint of technology readiness, from the regulatory timeline, no one's going to get an NRC license quicker than us," Nima Ashkeboussi, GLE vice president of government relations, said in an interview. GLE plans to enrich tailings, or waste byproducts left over from the DOE's enrichment programs. General Matter said the "vast majority" of the uranium it will enrich will be from domestic sources. The DOE is reserving tailings for it to enrich in the event of supply shortages, it said.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Daily Mail
More radioactive wasp nests found at former US nuclear bomb site
The discovery of additional radioactive wasp nests at a former US nuclear bomb plant has raised concerns that the facility may be leaking hazardous material. Workers at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina, uncovered three more contaminated nests following the initial find on July 3, which was emitting radiation levels 10 times higher than federal safety limits. The Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed it is aware of the situation and stated that the nests have been sprayed, sealed in bags as radiological waste and properly disposed of. The SRS, which was established in the early 1950s, played a key role in producing plutonium and tritium for America's nuclear weapons program throughout the Cold War . A spokesperson for Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), the contractor responsible for site cleanup, told the Daily Mail that teams recovered dead wasps after exterminating the nests. The insects, according to the spokesperson, showed lower levels of contamination than the nests themselves. While the DOE insists there has been no leakage from nearby nuclear waste tanks, some scientists are urging caution. Dr Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, told The New York Times that the contaminated nests suggest radioactive materials may be more widely dispersed across the area than previously believed. 'This is an indicator that there are contaminants spread across this area that have not been completely encased and protected,' Mousseau said, adding that the latest discoveries 'indicate that much greater effort must be made to assess the possible risks and hazards of what appears to be a significant source of radioactive pollutants.' SRMC said all four nests were found in F Tank Farm, an area toward the middle of the 310-square mile SRS boundary or more than five miles from the closest site boundary. The F-Area Tank Farm where the nest was found holds 22 massive underground tanks, each up to 100 feet wide and 23 feet deep, packed with between 750,000 and 1.3 million gallons of radioactive waste. Legacy contamination refers to pollution that persists in the environment from past activities, even after the original sources of contamination have ceased. 'The main concern relates to whether or not there are large areas of significant contamination that have escaped surveillance in the past,' Dr Mousseau told the New York Times , adding that the nests are a 'red flag' that should be investigated further. While SRMC said dead wasps were recently recovered, the group admitted that none were recovered after the first nest was found. However, the site's spokesperson stressed that 'nests do not pose a health risk to SRS workers, surrounding communities, or the environment. They added that the average person is exposed to about 620 millirem (mrem) of radiation each year from both natural and man-made sources. 'All of the nests were emitting less than one percent of the natural background radiation rate. Mrem is a unit of measurement for radiation dose equivalent for humans,' the spokesperson continued. However, the watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch slammed the report as 'incomplete,' saying it fails to explain the source of the contamination, how wasps were exposed or if more radioactive nests may be hidden. Tom Clements, executive director of the group, told AP: 'I'm as mad as a hornet that SRS didn't explain where the radioactive waste came from or if there is some kind of leak from the waste tanks that the public should be aware of.'
