Radioactive Wild Boars Still Roaming the Forests of Germany 212
An anonymous reader writes 28 years after the Chernobyl accident, tests have found that more than one in three Saxony boars give off such high levels of radiation that they are unfit for consumption. In 2009 almost €425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated to be sold. "It doesn't cover the loss from game sales, but at least it covers the cost of disposal," says Steffen Richter, the head of the Saxon State Hunters Association.
Re:Reall problem: German radiation phobia (Score:4, Interesting)
hmm...
Assuming all of the radioactivity is due to Cs-137, that 600 Bq/kg limit translates to 0.0000003 micrograms of Cs-137 in any given kg of wild pork.
Okay, I can buy the argument that that "safe" limit errs on the side of caution a bit much....
Re:Reall problem: German radiation phobia (Score:5, Interesting)
hmm...
Assuming all of the radioactivity is due to Cs-137, that 600 Bq/kg limit translates to 0.0000003 micrograms of Cs-137 in any given kg of wild pork.
Okay, I can buy the argument that that "safe" limit errs on the side of caution a bit much....
The real problem from a meltdown isn't really the radiation. While that's scary and all... the real problem is what else is released and what the shorter half life elements decay into. Most of what the control rods are made out of are horrific heavy metals, and during the Chernobyl incident the Russians panicked and dumped large amounts of liquid lead and cement laced with lead into the basement of the reactor. The lead boiled off and then rained back down all over the region. If I lived in the area, I'd be more concerned about that lead than I would be about the radiation.
Re:For a country so good at engineering... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's the green disease.
Pseudo-environmentalism (the thing practiced by the likes of Greenpeace) mixed with misinformed NIMBYism.
People who speak up against this are labeled haters of the environment. Meanwhile, the greens degenerate into ever more radical forms of pseudo-environmentalism.
Any engineer with half a brain and some knowledge on the subject immediately concludes that nuclear power is by far the better realistic option. However, society is not made up exclusively of engineers.