Research suggests wild boars in Germany have become contaminated with radioactive fallout that dates back to the Cold War.
As it turns out, they've been radioactive for a very long time.And while the prevailing theory has been that the Chernobyl nuclear plant meltdown in 1986 is behind this bizarre phenomenon, new research suggests the critters have been radioactive since long before that.
But that's not the whole story. By analyzing the samples, the researchers concluded that the boars were likely contaminated by fallout that dates back to nuclear weapon tests during the Cold War, long before the Chernobyl disaster even happened. In other words, it's not just one catastrophe in history that's causing wild boars to become radioactive.
"Our findings demonstrate that the superposition of older and newer legacies of cesium-137 can vastly surpass the impact of any singular yet dominant source," the paper reads, "and thus highlight the critical role of historical releases of cesium-137 in current environmental pollution challenges."Research has shown that radioactive fallout has moved underground over many decades.
Little do the hungry critters know that they're turning themselves into walking reminders of nuclear tests from over half a century ago.
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