Animals
Animals are affected by the operation of nuclear power -- but are the most ignored of all the nuclear industry's victims. Whether sucked into reactor intake systems, or pulverized at the discharge, aquatic animals and their habitats are routinely harmed and destroyed by the routine operation of reactors. In addition, animals are forced to remain in highly radioactive areas after a nuclear disaster, such as around Chernobyl and Fukushima. Some of our latest stories about animals can be found on our newest platform, Beyond Nuclear International. And for more about how routine reactor operations harms marine wildlife, see our Licensed to Kill page
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The largest wildlife census of its kind conducted in Chernobyl has revealed that mammals are declining in the exclusion zone surrounding the nuclear power reactor. It was based on almost four years of counting and studying animals there reports the BBC.
While contaminated sheep in Scotland may have - controversially - been taken off the radioactive list the same is not true for the wild pigs of Germany. On the rise in population, and making ever more frequent appearances in German cities, a significant portion of the wild boar population is still too radioactive for human consumption even nearly 25 years after the Chernobyl reactor accident that contaminated them. Der Spiegel has the full story.
August 3, 2010