The "string-like growth" was found in the Savannah River Site L Basin, which is used for the underwater storage of spent nuclear fuel. It was discovered by SRS workers during normal surveillance of the basin. We have been referring to it as "cobwebs" due to its visual appearance. We have not confirmed that the material found in the basin is biological. A larger sample will be needed for analysis, which we expect to be able to collect around late January. At that time, samples will be provided to Savannah River National Laboratory's environmental biotechnology experts for analysis. SRNL is designing and fabricating a new sampler; prior sampling equipment failed to obtain an adequate sample because the "webs" readily disperse when disturbed. There are no indications that the material has caused any adverse effects in the basin or its contents.

Several years ago, however, Savannah River National Laboratory did discover a microorganism when working with samples from a Savannah River Site high-level radioactive waste tank, which has proven very interesting.

The L Basin was built to store spent nuclear fuel and target assemblies discharged from one of the Savannah River Site's five production reactors. Today, all of the SRS reactors are shut down, and only L Basin still contains and receives fuel material. In 1996, the L Basin equipment was reconfigured to safely handle and store spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from off-site (foreign and domestic) research reactors. The first off-site fuel was received and stored in February 1997.