Re: Atomic Reindeer

["Dale E. Boyce" <dale@radpro.uchicago.edu>]

Some months after the Chernobyl excursion, I was brought some mushrooms
grown in Vilnius and Kaunas area of Lithuania to check for radioactivity.
They had of the order nanocuries/gram of Cs-137.  From various sources
I was told that the mushrooms grow in bogs and concentrate the Cs-137
by evaporation of water.  Reindeer also graze in these areas and thereby
pick up higher levels of Cs-137 than might be expected from more normal
pastures exposed to similar Cs-137 contamination.

This is a synthesis of word of mouth info from several sources whose
reliability I cannot vouch for.  It should be taken as such.

Dale