White ‘Cobwebs’ Found in Nuclear Waste Pool

 Radioactive nuclear fuel rods at Savannah River National Laboratory. White cobweb-like material appears near top of some containers

At the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, where, among other things, spent fuel rods from nuclear power reactors are stored, workers last fall reported a white substance, similar to cobwebs left by spiders, in one of the pools of water where the radioactive rods are kept.

“We observed it, it was unusual, it appears to be biological in nature but we don’t know that for sure,” said Will Callicott, the lab’s manager of executive communications. “It doesn’t seem to be doing any harm.”

It has, though, prompted some blaring headlines in tabloids in the UK. If you’re not into superheroes, Spider-Man was a teenager who took on extraordinary powers after he was bitten by a radioactive spider. In reality, scientists say they still have many questions about what radiation does to living things.

It is certainly harmful in large doses, breaking down tissue and damaging DNA, but American scientists who studied the evacuated wasteland around the Soviet Chernobyl nuclear plant after the 1986 accident there said they got a surprise. At least 135,000 people were forced to move — but the area they abandoned became a haven for wildlife.

Staff members at Savannah River say they have taken a small sample of the “string-like growth” found on the ends of the spent fuel racks, but Callicott said they will not have a full report until March on what it is.