4 Radioactive Wasp Nests Found at US Nuclear Facility

South Carolina Site Produced Materials for Nuclear Weapons Throughout Cold War

- Emily Anthes

COLUMBIA - Four radioactive wasp nests have been discovered at a South Carolina nuclear facility, according to federal officials.

The first nest, which was found by workers at the Savannah River Site early in July, was recently disclosed in a report from the Department of Energy, which owns the site. The facility, near Aiken, South Carolina, produced materials for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. Three additional nests have since been discovered at the site, officials told The New York Times on August 1.

"The US Department of Energy is managing the discovery of four wasp nests with very low levels of radioactive contamination," Mr. Edwin Deshong, the manager of the department's Savannah River operations office, said in an e-mailed statement. "The nests do not pose a health risk to SRS (Savannah River Site) workers, the community, or the environment."

But the discovery raised questions about the extent of the environmental contamination at the site, said Professor Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina who studies organisms and ecosystems in radioactive regions of the world, including Chernobyl in Ukraine and Fukushima in Japan.

"This is an indicator that there are contaminants spread across this area that have not been completely encased and protected," Prof. Mousseau said.