Re: Atomic Reindeer

["Franz Schoenhofer" <schoenho@via.at>]

Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 Wien
AUSTRIA
Tel./Fax: +43-1-4955308
Mobiltel.: +43-664-3380333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Harald Weiß, D-24147 Kiel <weiss@ki.comcity.de>
An: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Datum: Montag, 26. Jänner 1998 21:08
Betreff: Re: Atomic Reindeer


Hello RADSAFErs,

shortly after Chernobyl we (in Germany) were reported, reindeers showed
comparatively high Cs137-levels, but not accompanied by Cs134, thus
showing it was only the remainder of older fallout from weapon-tests.
Who knows more?

Greetings,

Harald Weiss

Standard disclaimer: My opinions expressed here are mine, which means
they don´t necessarily coincide with those of my employer or his
customers.
--
Harald Weiß                 weiss@ki.comcity.de
Preetzer Straße 263         Tel  +49 431 7859659
D-24147 Kiel                Fax  +49 431 7859658
..--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------

Harald,

During and after the large atmospheric tests conducted in the late fifties
and early sixties a large amount of Cs-137 (without Cs-134, which is an
activation product) as well as Sr-90 was distributed especially in the
northern hemisphere. Northern Finland, northern Sweden and northern Norway
were most affected by the large explosions in Novaja Semlja. A lot of work
has been done on contamination of lichen, reindeer (the consumers of the
slow growing lichen) and Laps, who consume large amounts of reindeer meat.
The results were without doubt one of the reasons why finally the moratorium
on atmospheric nuclear bomb tests came into being. The levels of Cs-137 from
the atmospheric bomb tests have declined, but are to some extent still
present.

After the Chernobyl accident large areas in Europe were heavily contaminated
by - among many other radionuclides - Cs-137 and Cs-134. But for instance
northern Finland was practically not affected by Chernobyl fallout. In
Sweden a lot of reindeer had to be slaughtered and discarded because of high
contamination. Therefore it is in principle possible, that reindeer from
norther Finland contained no Cs-134 even shortly after the accident. However
most of it has decayed anyway because of the short halflife of two years, so
you will nowadays probably not find
Cs-134 even in higher contaminated animals.

Similar considerations apply to wild animals in general and in parts of
Austria and the Bavarian Forest one can still find wild animals with many
thousands of Bq Cs-137 per kg in meat.

Especially in Sweden a lot of research has been done and is still going on
regarding the contamination of reindeer and moose. Lot of work has been done
both in Germany and Austria as to the contamination of wild animals.

In case you or other RADSAFERs are really interested in this topic, I could
give you hints, where to find more on it, some papers are available from our
research in Austria. Please e-mail me to my private e-mail address.

Regards,

Franz