A high percentage of Germany's wild boars are radioactive while other animals in the region are not.
But fallout from nuclear weapons tests decades ago may also have contaminated the truffles, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe trouble with trufflesThe likely culprit is the deer truffle, which grows underground and accumulates radioactive cesium.
Wild boars root them out, especially during the colder months when other food sources are scarce.
AdvertisementAdvertisementDeer truffles that are over a foot underground that nuclear weapons previously contaminated are now absorbing cesium from Chernobyl.
Persons:
Bin Feng, it's, Feng, Georg Steinhauser
Organizations:
Service, Science, Technology, Chernobyl, The Telegraph, BBC
Locations:
Wall, Silicon, Germany, Ukraine, Bavaria