On April 26, 1986, a disastrous accident at the power station in Chernobyl, Ukraine led to the release of more radiation into the atmosphere than the nuclear bomb released over Hiroshima, Japan in the Second World War. A routine test gone wrong resulted in what has been called the worst power plant accident in history – comparable only to the more recent disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan.
For almost two weeks after the disaster, the ruptured Chernobyl reactor continued to spew radioactive substances into the air, including iodine-131, cesium-137, plutonium and strontium-90. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus were directly affected, and reports indicate that radiation was subsequently detected in every European country except those on the Iberian Peninsula. In fact, over 200,000 square kilometers of land in Europe was affected by the radiation.
Now, even after three decades of clean-up attempts, a boar shot in Sweden has been found to contain 10 times the normal level of radiation.
The U.K.’s Daily Mail is reporting that the wild boar was shot in Augustin the Gävle in the center-east of Sweden and then examined by environmental consultants who check radiation levels in game meat. The boar’s radiation level of 13,000 becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg) was nearly 10 times the 1,500 Bq/kg established as safe for human consumption by Sweden’s Food Agency.
“This is the highest level we’ve measured,” Ulf Frykman, one of the environmental…