A radioactive wasp nest was found by Savannah River Site doing a routine check at the former nuclear bomb manufacturing plant (Picture: Metro)

A wasp nest found in on a former nuclear bomb factory site has sparked fears that radioactive wasps could encounter humans.

Workers at the Savannah River Site (SRS) discovered the nest on a post close to tanks holding liquid nuclear waste, while doing a routine check on radiation levels, according to a US Department of Energy report.

‘The nest was sprayed to kill the wasps, then bagged as radiological waste,’ stated the report.

Employees with the Radiological Control Operation team tested the nest and found it probing 100,000 disintegrations per minute/100 square centimeters beta/gamma, which is more than 10 times the amount allowed by federal regulations.

Radioactive waste sealed in large stainless steel canisters is stored under five feet of concrete in a storage building at the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, South Carolina (Picture: AP)

There was no contamination on the ground or areas near the nest, and operations were not impacted at the site, which is near Aiken, South Carolina.

‘The wasp nest is considered an onsite legacy radioactive contamination not related to a loss of contamination control,’ the report read.

It stated that ‘no further action was required in the field’, meaning there is no threat to the workers or public.

The wasp nest was bagged and tossed as radiological waste (Picture: Getty Images)

The weird discovery was made on July 3 and the report was not filed until July 22. It attributes the delay to time given to review previous wildlife contamination to make sure the reporting criteria was consistent.

But the local watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch has raised questions, including a lack of information on the contamination source and if there could be another radioactive nest.

‘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,’ said the group’s executive director, Tom Clements.

The Savannah River Site is a 310-square mile Department of Energy site located in the sand-hills region of South Carolina (Picture: Reuters)

Savannah River Mission Completion, which oversees the site, tried to alleviate concerns by pointing out that the tank farm is within the site and that wasps usually only fly no more than a few hundred feet away from their nests.