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Sometimes the radiation is too much even for the measuring device.

"The measuring device can show values ​​of up to 9999 Becquerel per kilogram," says hunting landlord Jörg Richter, who examined the levels of wild boar in the Augsburg district after the Chernobyl disaster.

But then it's just over.

But that doesn't matter with the high radiation - the meat of the wild boar is then absolutely inedible.

The worst case scenario was 35 years ago.

On the night of April 26, 1986, Soviet engineers lost control of their reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

A reactor exploded and radioactive materials were hurled into the atmosphere.

A noxious cloud moved across Europe - first in the direction of Sweden, then to Austria and Bavaria.

“April 30th in the morning was decisive,” says Richter.

Dark clouds moved over stretches of land in Swabia, over the Bavarian Forest and the south of Upper Bavaria.

"It was raining, but as usual in Bavaria only locally."

Cesium-137 persists

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The weather from back then still shapes the landscape today: In Meitingen, for example, a market in the northern district of Augsburg, it stayed dry, reports the 53-year-old.

"Radiation is hardly an issue there any more." But only a few kilometers further south it was raining - and the measuring devices are still knocking out.

Because with the rain at that time radioactive substances penetrated into the ground.

Most of them are no longer a problem, only cesium-137 persists.

The substance has a half-life of 30 years, so a good half of it has only just decayed.

“You can imagine Cesium-137 like salt,” explains Jagdwirt Richter.

In the forest floor, it attaches to organic matter in the top ten to 15 centimeters of the soil.

Trees absorb minerals such as calcium and also cesium through their roots, in autumn the polluted leaves fall back to the ground and decompose - an eternal cycle, whereby the substance remains in the ground.

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It is different in the fields, where Cesium-137 was simply flushed out and plowed under several times.

The radioactive concentration in grain, vegetables, salad or milk even from polluted regions is only extremely low, according to the State Office for the Environment (LfU).

Contaminated white rasling and bread crumb mushroom

For mushrooms and meat from wild boars that rummage through the polluted forest floor for food, the authorities' random samples still show top values: white rasling from the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district - 5100 Becquerel, bread stubble mushroom from the Miesbach district - 1300 Becquerel or wild boar the district of Ostallgäu - 1400 Becquerel. The limit is 600 Becquerel. Food with higher values ​​may not be sold, otherwise there is a risk of penalties.

"Every wild boar is checked," assures Richter from the Bavarian Hunting Association, which operates 124 measuring stations.

“Even if, as a hunter, I give a friend venison, I have to have it checked beforehand.” Half a kilogram of lean meat is made into goulash.

The fully automatic measurement with a kind of Geiger counter, a device the size of a coffee machine, takes less than ten minutes.

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In a good year, the experts estimate that only around ten to 15 percent of the wild boars killed in the affected areas are so contaminated that they have to be disposed of.

But it can also be up to 60, 70 percent, says Richter.

“That's two out of three wild boars.

It hurts the soul to actually have to dispose of such good meat. "

The State Office for the Environment does not dare to make a forecast

The radiation from wild boars varies depending on the year and the season. Food is crucial, as the hunter's studies show. The less the animals dig for food in the contaminated forest floor, the less they are contaminated. So when a lot of acorns, beechnuts and chestnuts fall off in autumn and corn and grain in summer, "the soil in the forest is no longer so interesting either". The water-soluble cesium-137, which is stored in the cells of the wild boar, is flushed out again.

But Richter estimates that it will take another 70 to 80 years before the burden on wild boars is at least halved. Even if the radioactive material slowly decays, the animals still ingest more than enough of it. The State Office for the Environment does not even dare to make a forecast. "A statement about when the activity will no longer be measurable is not possible," explains a spokeswoman. So the measurements continue - even decades after the Chernobyl disaster.