Nuclear weapons tests are attributed to radioactive pigs in Germany and Austria
Nuclear weapons tests are attributed to radioactive pigs in Germany and Austria
- It was previously believed that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 was the cause of this
- Researchers have now attributed infected pigs to nuclear weapons testing
Nuclear weapons tests are to blame for radioactive wild boars in Germany and Austria, a new study finds.
The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster was previously believed to be the cause of the radioactive pigs, but researchers at the Austrian Technical University of Vienna have now attributed the contaminated pigs to nuclear weapons testing.
Weapon testing took place in the decades after World War II, but the soil in the areas where the boars roam the forests of Germany and Austria is still polluted.
It is estimated that more than two million wild boars roam Germany and Austria, regularly wreaking havoc on local wildlife, destroying crops and causing thousands of car accidents in Central Europe every year.
But the pigs are largely protected from hunters because of their radioactivity, making them unsafe for human consumption.
Nuclear weapons tests are to blame for radioactive wild boars in Germany and Austria, new study finds (file image)
Until recently, it was believed that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster was responsible for the high concentrations of cesium (chemical element Cs) in the animals.
If the radioactive levels were a result of the 1986 power plant disaster, researchers said, cesium levels would have dropped significantly by now.
In the study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, researchers based the specific reasoning for the radioactive pigs on the discovery that the pigs would have tested positive for the radioactive element caesium-137 if Chernobyl was to blame.
Instead, they found that the animals were rich in caesium-135 — a radioactive element much more common in nuclear weapons than in power plants.
“The team found that 88 percent of the 48 meat samples exceeded German legal limits for radioactive cesium in food,” the report said.
“For the samples with elevated levels, the researchers calculated the ratios of caesium-135 to caesium-137, and found that nuclear weapons testing yielded between 10 and 68 percent of the contamination.”
The team concluded that post-World War II nuclear weapons testing was “a… undervalued source of radioactive cesium on German soil” and therefore affected the pigs.
It is estimated that more than two million wild boars roam Germany and Austria, regularly wreaking havoc on local wildlife, destroying crops and causing thousands of car accidents in Central Europe every year (file image)
The team also blamed the phenomenon on underground mushrooms and deer truffles.
The fungi are eaten almost exclusively by the wild boar and by no other animal.
The nuclear cesium slowly cracked through the soil and eventually reached the truffles, explaining the reason for the delay in contaminating the pigs, the researchers said.
“Contamination from both sources has been absorbed by the wild boars’ diets, such as underground truffles, which contributed to their persistent radioactivity,” the team said.