Los Ángeles (EE.UU.).- A nest of wasps subjected to high levels of radiation was discovered in a US government facility in South Carolina, where materials for nuclear weapons were produced, according to a report revealed by the US Department of Energy (DOE, in English).
You may be interested in: Could the US or Israel attack Iran’s key nuclear facility?
The nest was found on a pole near the tanks where liquid nuclear waste is stored at the plant, located near the border between South Carolina and Georgia. The workers sprayed the wasp nest with insecticide, removed it, and disposed of it as radioactive waste, explains the DOE report. The wasp nest was considered “in situ” inherited radioactive contamination, which remained when the plant was in full operation. The SRS, formerly known as the Savannah River Plant, was built in the 1950s to produce materials used in the construction of nuclear weapons. Currently, the facility, with around ten thousand workers, is mainly dedicated to environmental cleanup, nuclear materials management, and research and development; and none of the nuclear reactors it owns are operational. The DOE emphasizes in the report that the radiation found is not related to a loss of control of contamination at the nuclear facility. The authorities added that the report on the wasp nest was delayed due to a review of previous cases of contamination in wildlife.
