Environmental health officials reemphasized Tuesday that the radioactive wasp issue at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, one that made national headlines last month, is not currently considered a concern to the public.
During a bimonthly meeting with the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB), site officials fielded questions about the July 3 discovery of a wasp nest in one of the tank farms at the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C. Since then, at least three other nests have been discovered. Each nest was treated with insecticide and disposed of.
Board member Marty Ball voiced concerns about potential spread of radioactivity, including the trace levels of cesium found in the nests. But Gene Rhodes, the director of the Savannah River Ecology Lab (SREL), said the cesium is coming from the water around the tank farm, rather than the wood being used to build the nests. He added that he did a walkthrough in the farms and said he did not find anything too concerning.
“Everything needed to make those nests are right there in the tank farms,” Rhodes said. “I’m not seeing any evidence that there’s anything more than what’s already in the tanks.”
Rhodes said his team is doing a study to determine if trees surrounding the tanks have been contaminated. If not, there is no concern to the public, as long as the materials and nests are confined within the tank farm.
“I don’t see that being anything other than a very localized problem,” Rhodes said.
Other CAB members questioned the potential impacts among wildlife around the site were to eat the wasps. Jon Richards, a human health risk assessor with EPA, said the spread of radioactivity to wildlife is something EPA monitors. To date, there have been no alarming discoveries.
“It’s a whole ecosystem and we have risk assessors who monitor that,” Richards said.
SRS is home to two tank farms that house a total of 51 underground waste storage tanks. The 43 tanks that have not yet been operationally closed hold more than 35 million gallons of waste. Rhodes said that the wasp nest issue will take care of itself as workers close more tanks.