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Wild boar in Bavaria (archive): Elevated measured values are not uncommon
Photo: D. u. M. Sheldon / picture alliance / blickwinkel / D.
and M. Sheldon
35 years after the Chernobyl reactor disaster, wild boars in Bavaria are still exposed to high levels of radiation, as reported by the Bavarian Hunting Association.
Readings above the limit of 600 Becquerel radiocesium per kilogram are not uncommon.
This is due to the habits of this wild species - wild boars, unlike other wild animals, look for a large part of their food in the ground, such as roots, mushrooms and white grubs, according to the association's press release.
According to the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, these are a particularly good storage facility for the radioactive cesium, which after the Chernobyl reactor accident fell mainly over southern Germany and slowly migrated to deeper layers of the soil.
To ensure that only flawless meat comes to consumers' plates, the hunting association began in the nineties to set up a nationwide network of radiocesium measuring stations, which has since been expanded considerably.
Chernobyl open to tourists again
The Free State now operates 124 measuring stations.
Meat that is contaminated with more than 600 Becquerel per kilo must be destroyed in accordance with the strict German and European meat hygiene guidelines.
It is no longer suitable for consumption.
Hunters can apply for compensation from the Federal Office of Administration.
In the largest nuclear catastrophe involving civilian nuclear power, there was an explosion on April 26, 1986 in block four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was still Soviet at the time.
Thousands of people died as a result, tens of thousands were forcibly relocated.
The restricted area is now accessible again for guided tourists.
In the past few years there had been repeated fires in the unpopulated areas of the exclusion zone.
Often they have been attributed to arson.
kha / dpa
