What Nuclear Fallout Left Behind

On July 3, 2025, routine radiation checks at the Savannah River Site—a sprawling Cold War-era nuclear facility in South Carolina—revealed something straight out of a sci-fi thriller: a radioactive wasp nest perched beside waste storage tanks, emitting radiation levels ten times higher than federally permitted limits Officials labeled it “legacy contamination,” not an active leak, and swiftly zapped the nest, bagged it as radiological waste—and let everyone know there’s no exposure risk 

Routine monitoring flagged more: four hot nests in total, all within the heavily contained F-Area Tank Farm. Wasps generally don’t stray far—so no danger outside the facility. Experts say the nests likely picked up radioactive sediment during cleanup ops—not an imminent health threat, but a striking reminder of lingering Cold War fallout.

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