B5. The "Becquerel Reindeer"

Previous | Index | Next

B5. The Becquerel Reindeer.

B5. The "Becquerel Reindeer". These reindeer carcasses in a meat-locker in Swedish Lapland are too radioactive for human consumption. The reindeer grazed on lichen containing fission products released into the atmosphere from melting irradiated fuel in the Chernobyl reactor. In Sweden the maximum radioactivity allowed in meat is 300 becquerels per kilo. Meat from these reindeer measured as high as 16,000 becquerels per kilo. Slaughterhouse workers referred to the carcasses as "the becquerel reindeer." Harads Same-produktor, Harads, Lapland, Sweden. 3 December 1986.

These photographs by Robert Del Tredici are protected by copyright and are available for purchase as high-quality digital prints on archival paper or as silver gelatin prints from bdeltredici@hotmail.com.

Previous | Index | Next