Could have been worse.
Posted on 07/30/2025 5:12:55 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Workers at a site in South Carolina that once made key parts for nuclear bombs in the U.S. have found a radioactive wasp nest but officials said there is no danger to anyone.
Employees who routinely check radiation levels at the Savannah River Site near Aiken found a wasp nest on July 3 on a post near tanks where liquid nuclear waste is stored, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The nest had a radiation level 10 times what is allowed by federal regulations, officials said.
The workers sprayed the nest with insect killer, removed it and disposed of it as radioactive waste. No wasps were found, officials said.
The report said there is no leak from the waste tanks, and the nest was likely radioactive through what it called “onsite legacy radioactive contamination” from the residual radioactivity left from when the site was fully operational.
The watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch said the report was at best incomplete since it doesn’t detail where the contamination came from, how the wasps might have encountered it and the possibility there could be another radioactive nest if there is a leak somewhere.
Knowing the type of wasp nest could also be critical — some wasps make nest out of dirt and others use different material which could pinpoint where the contamination came from, Tom Clements, executive director of the group, wrote in a text message.
“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,” Clements said.
The tank farm is well inside the boundaries of the site and wasps generally fly just a few hundred...
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Just great, now we have wasps with superpowers. Bummer.
Could have been worse.
I find all wasp nests to be radioactive, and act accordingly.
“No wasps were found?”
That’s comforting to know. So now we have the possibility of radioactive wasps that will inject their radioactive poison into unsuspecting victims.....
Wasps slurp of tons of water from any source. Making paper and cooling the hive takes about two gallons per day. That means some radioactive water puddles are nearby.
No super powers, but you have a svelte waist.
Now a manager I once had, we believed he’d been bitten by a radioactive dung beetle.
Nuke ‘em till they glow the shootem in the dark!!! Got stung by one hidden on the front side of my shooting bench a couple of weeks ago. Sprayed them three days in a row then had to use a long stick to knock the nest down and stomped on it. I’m only 300 miles from Savannah River...looks like they’re spreading!
“I’m as mad as a hornet...”, Clements said.
lol
Anglo Saxons with the power to make a dry martini on a moment’s notice
Now we know what all those mysterious drones were months ago………😱
Like we don’t have enough problems.
One of the creepiest and therefore ‘best’ movies about wasps, would be ‘The Wasp Woman’ from 1959. Directed by Roger Corman.
A cosmetics company owner transforms into a wasp-like creature after using a youth serum derived from wasps. Her transformations only happen at night. The movie came on at 1.30AM.
I saw this while in the hospital recovering from foot surgery.
The Nurse wondered why my blood pressure was so high, even before breakfast. I said. “I don’t really know’, thinking she would take my TV away, if I blurted out the real cause!
Myself....
Those little buggers can work their way into any space.
Bald face hornets pounded Mr right thru my beekeepers suit.
The stings felt like being hit by hot hammers. Nasty things.
Make me a Seargeant in charge of the booze!
Make me a Seargeant in charge of the booze!
Marvel and DC will pay big money for the wasp’s story.
When I worked at a landfill I had radiation treatments for non-hodgkins lymphoma. When I would go out to the scalehouses I would set off the radiation detectors. Sounds more serious than it was, because obviously I was interacting with people, and the doctors wouldn’t have let me contaminate people. Or would they...
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