Nature & Environment

Radioactive wasp nest found at nuclear facility in South Carolina

By T.K. Randall
August 1, 2025 ·  7 comments

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) As if ordinary wasps weren't enough of a nuisance, the idea of radioactive wasps entering your home is enough to make anyone think twice about keeping the windows open.

According to reports, the radioactive nest was discovered by workers during a routine inspection of the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken back at the start of July.

It was located on a post near to where millions of gallons of liquid nuclear waste are stored and exhibited radiation levels ten times higher than those permissible under current regulations.

"The wasp nest was sprayed to kill wasps, then bagged as radiological waste," the US Department of Energy wrote in a report that was published last week.Despite these measures, no actual wasps were found in the nest and it was noted that even when there were wasps there, they would have been a lot less radioactive than the nest itself.

Also, the wasps were unlikely to have flown far from the nest anyway.

Even so, the find has unnerved people living both in the area and elsewhere.

"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," Tom Clements of the Savannah River Site Watch group told Associated Press.

Source: BBC News | Comments (7)

Tags: Wasps, Nuclear