Radioactive wasp nest found at site where US once made nuclear bombs

[6Foot2]

Link: Radioactive wasp nest found at site where US once made nuclear bombs - ABC News

 

Quote

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...

 

"... No wasps were found..."

 

So where are the radioactive wasps?

 

😜

[3s-gtech]

17 minutes ago, 6Foot2 said:

Link: Radioactive wasp nest found at site where US once made nuclear bombs - ABC News

 

 

"... No wasps were found..."

 

So where are the radioactive wasps?

 

😜

…they’ll show up on radar, soon enough.

[Roberto]

10 hours ago, 6Foot2 said:

Link: Radioactive wasp nest found at site where US once made nuclear bombs - ABC News

 

 

"... No wasps were found..."

 

So where are the radioactive wasps?

 

😜

Filming season 3 of Fallout.

[southhamster]

Do they glow in the dark?

[Ketlane]

Way back in time we had some tritium-illuminated compasses - ex US Army. I believe I was told that as they were compasses and therefore not 'official radioactive sources for school experiments' they came under different regulations - they were more powerful than the sources the physics lab owned....

[6Foot2]

Those compasses emitted low-energy electrons during the decay of the tritium (they do not have enough energy to penetrate skin, and they would also be unable to penetrate the glass on the face of the compass.)

 

Tritium has a half-life of 12.33 years.

[Andrew_C]

On 02/08/2025 at 21:22, Ketlane said:

they were more powerful than the sources the physics lab owned....

I've got a couple of rocks that fall into that category - may have to dispose of them following a change of advisor.

 

As I understand it, it is damage / disposal of compasses that gets exciting.