Radioactive Boar On the Rise In Germany

Germans who go out in the woods today are sure of a big surprise, radioactive boars. A portion of the wild boar population in Germany was irradiated after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, and the boars are thriving. In the last two years government payments to compensate hunters for radioactive boar have quadrupled. From the article: "According to the Environment Ministry in Berlin, almost €425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in 2009 in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated by radiation to be sold for consumption. That total is more than four times higher than compensation payments made in 2007." I think the Germans are overlooking just how much money there is to be made from regenerating bacon.

Comments

quoth the radioactive boar:

[neko the frog]

GET OUT OF HERE STALKER

Re:quoth the radioactive boar:

[Runefox]

I said come in, don't just stand there!

err, World of... uhm Germany-craft?

[petesmart]

Germany stealing Blizzard IP or the other way round?

Re:err, World of... uhm Germany-craft?

[JoeQuaker]

More like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

New German Movie Due Out Next Summer

[powerlord]

Boarzilla!

Re:New German Movie Due Out Next Summer

[Creedo]

And it will likely be made by Uwe Boll, which is scarier than the actual movie.

Re:New German Movie Due Out Next Summer

[jd2112]

Blue Oyster Cult is already working on the theme song.

Re:New German Movie Due Out Next Summer

[nospam007]

Hopefully with more cowbells.

Re:New German Movie Due Out Next Summer

[ScrewMaster]

Boarzilla!

More likely Godzoara.

It's actually a good thing!

[Just_Say_Duhhh]

Germany could market these as "Self-Cooking Boar!"

Too lazy to cook? No fuel for your stove? No problem - just shoot, wrap in foil, and a few hours later...DINNER!

Dusterwaldkeiler

[Improv]

Ahh, reminds me of my Magic: The Gathering days... cast "Wild Growth" on the "Dusterwaldkeiler" and goodbye to enemy "Serra Angel"s. Muhaha

Re:Dusterwaldkeiler

[pisces22]

Could it be that "hunters" are irradiating the meat for the money? No, I didn't RTFA. Why do you ask?

Re:Dusterwaldkeiler

[Improv]

See: http://magiccards.info/st2k/de/3.html

Re:Dusterwaldkeiler

[Improv]

Oh, you're right. I haven't played the game for years and my memories are slightly foggy.

Re:Dusterwaldkeiler

[Improv]

Yeah... I stopped playing Magic right after Ice Age was released, but before I quit, I was working on two collections: Atogs and Durkwood Boars. With a bit of trading, I ended up with a good number of Durkwood Boars in foreign languages.

I recently fit my many boxes of Magic into a backpack (barely, and it was damned heavy!) and went to a Magic gaming night at a local toy store. Apparently (and unsurprisingly), the game has changed a lot, as I was lost. Also, apparently it's a lot easier to make fast decks - the pace of the game used to be a lot slower except for tournament quality decks, and my casual decks didn't stand up very well. Oh well - people were kind of amused to see my ancient cards (and a lot of people wanted to trade or buy)

Re:Dusterwaldkeiler

[Jesus_666]

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Re:Dusterwaldkeiler

[Improv]

I still have never heard of any of the cards you mention (except for black vise). Remember, Ice Age was the last set I've seen. I do remember blast decks, and I often enjoyed building decks that were mana-burn centric with mana flare (that I could flip around for a bit using manabarbs if I managed to get more creatures out than they could deal with).

I don't think I've heard of shadow - is it like landwalking?

Anyhow, I imagine I won't start playing again regularly - it might be fun to dust off the old kobold, artifact, or blast decks, but I'm imagining the game is simply too different at this point.

I might be well before your time - I do have some alpha cards but only really started playing in unlimited (I didn't have a lot of arabian knights cards but I have a good number of most of the sets between there and ice age).

Re:Dusterwaldkeiler

[Jesus_666]

I originally played Fourth and Fifth Edition and quit shortly before Sixth came out in 1999, only stopping by to buy a few Unglued and Unhinged boosters (both are official parody sets), until I finally got back into the game around 2008. So yeah, I know this feeling of "what the hell are they playing with these days?" - although this was less prominent before Wizards replaced the power creep with a mad dash starting with Shards of Alara (which is now five sets back).

If you want to see a nicely balanced modern set, take a look at the Kamigawa block. The cards there can be fairly powerful and even downright devastating if you specialize on Kamigawa cards but compensate for that by costing more mana. I think it's pretty balanced but many modern players didn't like the set because they felt that everything was too expensive.

As for you not knowing those cards: That was actually the point. I was giving examples of more recent cards you could buy/trade for in order to build somewhat competitive decks with mostly old cards. Well, except for Black Vise and Underworld Dreams. You might have known the latter one; it was printed in Legends in 1994 - although after that it hasn't been reprinted for nine years so it was pretty obscure until 2003 when several core sets reprited it.

As for shadow: Shadow is more like flying than landwalk. Creatures with shadow can only block and be blocked by other creatures with shadow. They pretty much fight on their own battlefield. Since nowadays the keyword has fallen out of favor they're essentially unblockable for a modest mana cost at the expense of being unable to block themselves. Shadow appeared in the Tempest set in 1998. A well-built wall deck that relies on shadow creatures to deal damage can actually outlast some modern decks and is especially nice in Two-Headed Giant if your mate has a slow but nasty deck. While not dirt-cheap, most Soltari aren't really expensive either.

For the most part, Magic has become more powerful - cards often don't cost nearly what they would've cost fifteen years ago and some modern keywords are really nasty. On the other hand, some cards have rarely been reprinted because they were deemed too good. Things like Swords to Plowshares, Counterspell and Lightning Bolt are actually better than their modern equivalents. Also, some useful older keywords have fallen out of favor, which only made them stronger... although I think the only "lost" keyword you have access to is banding, which just isn't that useful.

What?????

[Dynedain]

I'm having trouble understanding how the Cherynobl meltdown has anything to do with wild boar populations in southern Germany. The article specifically mentions Bavaria, a region a thousand miles (and several countries) away. I admit I'm just an ignorant American, but surely this doesn't make any sense?

Re:What?????

[Ephemeriis]

I'm having trouble understanding how the Cherynobl meltdown has anything to do with wild boar populations in southern Germany. The article specifically mentions Bavaria, a region a thousand miles (and several countries) away. I admit I'm just an ignorant American, but surely this doesn't make any sense?

I'm just as clueless... But I'm going to assume that you've got radioactive dust drifting in the wind. Maybe?

Re:What?????

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's something that will really baffle your puny American mind:

http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/livestock/scotland%E2%80%99s-chernobyl-sheep-no-longer-radioactive/32935.article

Re:What?????

[arose]

Fallout, it doesn't stay in their backyard.

Re:What?????

[ceejayoz]

Never heard of fallout?

Re:What?????

[kav2k]

Look for fallout maps. Example, this one

Re:What?????

[rrohbeck]

I guess you weren't around back then.
There was no fresh milk, fruit or vegetables for some time in most of central, east and northern Europe because everything had to be tested and much had to be trashed. People were warned against collecting berries and mushrooms for years.
The radioactive cloud went northwest to Scandinavia first and then southward to Central Europe.

Re:What?????

[jaak]

It's called radioactive fallout. A large plume of radioactive debris was spread over Europe (in fact, this was how the accident was first detected outside of the USSR, not because the authorities reported it).

The debris contaminated ground water, lakes, rivers, forests, animals, livestock, etc. all over parts of Europe.

I was in the UK at the time and I remember the contamination almost destroyed the lamb and mutton industry there.

Wikipedia has some information on the effects of the disaster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

Re:What?????

[ColdWetDog]

I'm just as clueless...

Just a idea. Sit down. Have a drink. Now don't get mad at me or all stressed out, I know it's hard to deal with new things. Just consider to concept at least:

Read the Fucking Article.

Re:What?????

[Anonymous Coward]

to all the nutt cases who think that "Nucular is the new green energy".... ... When Chernobyl blew up we (i lived in bavaria at that time) got a healthy dose (pun intended) of fall out from the wind drift.

It was in fact so bad that no agricultural products could be sold that year, public playgrounds closed, and people generally were advised to not go outside.
(and when they come back in, to decontaminate their shoes)

I bought a geiger counter and was amazed that the lettuce from our garden was more radioactive than the "calibration probe" which came with the counter.
Most of it was radioactive iodine which had a half life of 30 days, but it was BAD.

In fact so bad that german milk powder was classified as radioactive waste, and had to be stored in radioactive containment to cool down the Iodine.

Most of the stuff left now is Caesium which will be with us for a few generations, and it accumulates in forests, because trees act as pesky little "air filters" trapping dust and such on their leaved and dropping it to the ground.
The german season for wild mushrooms ended in April 1989.
for good.

Thanks to Russia
and THANKS to the NUCLEAR LOBBY

(OH THE IRONY.... the captcha for posting this post was "neighbor"... gotta love it.

Re:What?????

[burni2]

The radioactive fallout from "Tschernobyl" went down in several european countries. So in the first it's not a purely german problem, but we might have strikter rules for certain radioactivity levels.
The radioactive isotopes are the problem as they stay active due to their rate of radioactive decay ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_decay ). And those isotopes were thought to be taken deeper into the earth through rain. But boars have an interesting habbit .. they shovel into earthy grounds with their nose.

The fallout isotopes are still there with a high level radioactivity plus you have a species that hunts for food at a certain depth. It seems that the isotopes wandering deeper into the earth now just managed to reach the right depth for boars. That's an explanation for the rise.

The most prevalent isotope found is Cs-137 which acording to wiki has t-half of 30,17 years. So the back of the envelope shot says at the moment of now not even half of the Cs-137 ejected in 1986 has decayed yet to other also possible radiactive elements. Cs-137 emits electrons (or beta minus radiation) shielding is very easy even a piece of paper blocks most radiation but Cs-137 will be used from the human body as it shows similar chemical reactions like potassium so this isotope will be a long life friend, t1/2 = 30 years but the best thing is that cs137 decays to Ba-137 with a t1/2 of 2 minutes, and Ba-137 in this configuration is a gamma-radiator, it's like a double punch.

In "Tschernobyl" the amount of radioactive material was much higher than what was emitted during the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombing, but it would be interesting to correlate the ejected material with above ground nuclear tests ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_tests )

Re:What?????

[powerlord]

The radioactive cloud went northwest to Scandinavia first and then southward to Central Europe.

Then it swerved left and settled over France, first diminishing the intelligence of local elected officials (which went undetected), before finally being fermented into a new "glow in the dark" cheese.

Happy to have finally found a home, the Radioactive Cloud settled down and while currently still unattached, hopes to one day have little "Containment Leaks".

(sorry all, I think I'm in a giddy mood today)

Re:What?????

[Grishnakh]

No, it's thanks to the Russian designers and managers who decided to build a crappy and unsafe nuclear plant.

Germany is next-door to France, which has tons of nuclear plants, and sells lots of power to the rest of Europe. In fact, you might be using nuclear-generated power from France right now, since you're so close to them. How many disasters has France had with their nuclear plants? Zero?

Cars can be very dangerous too, for instance if you put the gas tank in a place where it will rupture and explode in a small collision (like the Ford Pinto). Should we stop making all cars because of this? No, of course not; we stop making crappy, unsafe cars like the Pinto.

BTW, I don't think the nuclear lobby had anything to do with nuclear plants in the Soviet Union. They didn't have lobbyists there, and environmental concerns weren't very important to Communist ideology.

Re:What?????

[Ephemeriis]

Read the Fucking Article.

Why the hell would I do that? This is Slashdot.

Re:What?????

[Anonymous Coward]

It sucks that you were affected by Chernobyl, and you have my sympathy. But please, for the sake of the planet and our children, stop repeating this ridiculous idea that modern nuclear power is dangerous.

Chernobyl was a design that was theoretically known to have a problem, and that was run by a crew rushed into doing an experiment that they weren't trained for, and which they fucked up in a way such that the void coefficient problem caused a feedback loop. And even then the automated systems kept it under control until somebody got nervous and scrammed it, which blew shit up due to the utterly, obviously retarded design of the control rods. That can't happen in a modern reactor. Nothing like that can happen in a modern reactor, and even if it could, the way they are run absolutely precludes anything like Chernobyl happening.

Nuclear is the only clean power source that we can deploy right now and get all our baseline energy needs from. The known reserves are enough to last for hundreds of years assuming current growth, and thorium could potentially keep us going for thousands of years. We need to stop burning oil for electrical power as soon as humanly possible. There's no workable replacement for the internal combustion engine. There's no workable replacement for plastics. There is an EXTREMELY workable replacement for oil burning power stations, and we need to get rid of them so that we have as long as possible to figure out what we can do about plastics and petrol. And the more nuclear power is opposed, by people like you who hold opinions that are demonstrably contradicted by science, the sooner we run out of oil, the sooner we run out of plastics and petrol. God knows what will happen then, but I doubt it will be pretty. And I doubt anyone will care about wild mushrooms.

Re:What?????

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm having trouble understanding how the Cherynobl meltdown has anything to do with wild boar populations in southern Germany. The article specifically mentions Bavaria, a region a thousand miles (and several countries) away. I admit I'm just an ignorant American, but surely this doesn't make any sense?

Yes, you are an ignorant American. Not your fault, it's the fault of US media. But you should visit more international news sites, because US media is extremely US centered and very low quality.

Many (random) parts of Europe was contaminated by radioactive rain caused by the Chernobyl meltdown (and the radioactivity won't magically disappear), thus contaminated wild boars (and mushrooms, berries, fish et.c.). Some of the radioactive rain caused by Chernobyl reached as far as the most northern parts of Sweden and Finland (where game, mushrooms, berries, fish et.c is no longer fit for human consumtion). If you look at an earth globe you discover that if the radioactive clouds would have blown as far to south, instead of north, they would have rained down somewhere in Central Africa. Nuclear power plant disasters is not a local problem, neither is any air pollution and most water pollution (e.g. the acid rain caused by coal burned in GB and Germany mostly fall over the Nothern parts of Scandinavia, the radioactive leeks in the sea from nuclear plants in Brittain finally end up in The Baltic Sea (where the radioactivity get higher and higher), much of the garbage dropped by Americans into the sea from the East Coast shores of USA end up in The Mediterranian Sea, half of the air pollution from USA end up in Canada) .

What this article is about:

Radioactive wild boars -> No one wants to eat wild boar meat -> No one wants to hunt wild boar -> More wild boars

Global Warming -> Warmer winters -> More wild boars survive winter -> More wild boars

Many wild boars -> Farming get impossible in the area + People and pets get attacked by wild boars -> Government pays hunters more to compensate for unsaleable wild bore meat

Re:What?????

[HaZardman27]

Nothing major, but France has had a few issues with their power plants.

Re:What?????

[Solandri]

The article specifically mentions Bavaria, a region a thousand miles (and several countries) away. I admit I'm just an ignorant American, but surely this doesn't make any sense?

Most of the U.S. sits between 30-48 degrees latitude. The prevailing winds there blow from West to East, so it's easy to understand your confusion about radioactive fallout making its way westward.

Most of Europe sits from 40-60 degrees latitude, with Scandinavia going even higher. When you get up near 60 degrees latitude, the prevailing winds blow the opposite way from East to West. Chernobyl was at about 50 degrees latitude. The day it caught fire, the high level winds were blowing mostly to the North. That took the fallout up near the 60 degree mark, where the winds then blew it SW over Scandinavia and Britain. Then it got picked up by the regular West to East trade winds at 40 degrees latitude and contaminated most of Central Europe. One of the first clues the world outside the USSR got about the disaster was from a nuclear plant in Sweden having its radiation alarms triggered by the clothes of workers trying to enter the plant.

Re:What?????

[tenco]

Beeing of age 5 at this time and living in bavaria, I remember that my parents didn't allow me to play outside (government recommendation) and dairy farmers weren't allowed to sell their milk for quite some time.

If you ever wondered why nuclear energy isn't that popular in europe - that's the most likely reason.

Re:What?????

[budgenator]

It doesn't, the Wild Boar population increase is due to primarily milder winters, and that's independent of the the fallout from Cherynobl. There might be some cross-over from fewer people not hunting because the pigs are radioactive and inedible, but mostly it's just coincidence. I'm surprised nobody has cued up the AGW band yet.

Re:What?????

[Anonymous Coward]

I admit I'm just an ignorant American, but surely this doesn't make any sense?

I like the part where driving directions were used instead of walking ones.

If radioactive boars have learned to drive, we're in even bigger trouble than we thought.

Re:What?????

[KevinIsOwn]

Note that certain mushrooms are still contaminated! Chanterelle mushrooms are still somewhat radioactive, at least the ones from Belarus, and that's where most come from. You can only eat them a few times a year, which is truly a shame, as they are one of the most delicious mushrooms that exists.

Re:What?????

[operagost]

The USA is covered with radiation and pollution-generating coal power plants-- thanks to the anti-nuclear lobby. But it was worth it, because look at how much radiation all those exploding nuclear plants put out! All ONE of them!

Re:What?????

[laejoh]

I hope to never see one! I've heard the legends and I virtualize a Fallout as half-salamander, because, according to tradition, the thing was born in the Flame Deluge, and as half-incubus who despoiled virgins in their sleep (slashdotters, beware!)

Re:What?????

[pclminion]

Look at it another way. Some species of mushrooms are wonderfully good at concentrating heavy metal elements, including radioactive ones. You let the fungus grow, then harvest it and put it in radioactive containment vessels. Now you are using fungus to actively extract and isolate the radioisotopes from the contaminated soil. Yes, it's a shame you can't eat the chanterelles but in some sense, it's nature trying to clean up after humans made a mess of things.

The American chanterelles are much better anyway ;-)

Re:What?????

[zx-15]

Coundn't plastics be made out of coal? I mean it is easier to make them out of oil, but it's not like oil contains fairy dust that makes it unique, and not just chains of hydrocarbons. And what about actually recycling plastics, they don't degrade in the environment so they could be collected from landfills and well.. recycling containers.

I don't think it's a big deal that we're burning that oil and some day may run out of it, I'm much more worried about all that carbon that we're putting in the atmosphere and causing global warming. Nuclear power plants and electric cars seem to be the way to go if not solving then mitigating the problem.

Re:What?????

[pixelpusher220]

As for nuclear plants, a dozen planes could fly into a modern nuclear plant and do all of nothing much

Which is why I didn't suggest the plant itself is the problem, but the pretty much open air (water) storage of the waste. It sits on site at the reactors for years with little in the way of hardened shielding.

You misunderstand what's growing. He's assuming current growth in energy demand, and zero growth in the fuel supply.

Google 'Uranium shortage'. Given that we're talking orders of magnitude increase in power to reach base load levels, it's perfectly reasonable to question whether we have enough or not. Especially when the OP (and everybody else saying we have enough) doesn't specify what they mean.

The cost of waste storage is factored into the cost of modern nuclear plants.

Please show me where the local utility plants are paying for 100+ years of storage. The Fed gov't is the one footing the bill, i.e. Yucca mountain (yes I know it's dead). That's not including the cost of storage, that's passing the buck to the gov't to do it for you.

The best the plants can say is that they paying the gov't to figure out what to do with it. That doesn't mean its done. When the bill comes due, the utility customers won't pay the it, the gov't will.

modern nuclear plants don't produce the kind of waste that ancient plants (e.g. Chernobyl & American plants) produced.

Breeder reactors produce significantly less waste, but I believe they also produce weapons grade material, hence why some countries are less than wild about using them.

I don't want to argue the merits of this nuclear plant or that one. My point is that no nuclear plant is as safe as a non-nuclear solution. We can build out nuclear only to have to find something else when that fuel runs out. Or we can spend the money now to switch to renewable sources and only switch it once.

Re:What?????

[Man On Pink Corner]

Even if we go nuclear in the interim, we still have the waste storage issue to deal with for hundreds of years...not anything we've even considered in terms of cost.

I know! We can aerosolize our radioactive waste and spew it out into the the atmosphere, where it can kill people hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the site. You know, like coal plants are doing right now.

The solution to pollution is dilution, right?

Re:What?????

[pixelpusher220]

If we convert to nuclear, we still have waste/emissions issues, since as you say there still are emissions from nuclear plants in the form of the waste. We'll need to deal with the waste at some point and so far there isn't a plan to deal with it. Just put it somewhere and hope it doesn't leak/leech into the environment.

My choice is more short term pollution from coal with the goal of renewable sources completely (or at least most) down the road.

You don't get down the road until you start driving, so why take a different road that doesn't get you where you are going?

Re:What?????

[Man On Pink Corner]

We'll need to deal with the waste at some point and so far there isn't a plan to deal with it.

I don't think we should try to do anything too extreme to get rid of nuclear waste. To the extent the waste is still energetic, we're going to want it back for recycling, I'm sure. I suspect that a recurring theme over the next few hundred years is that one era's "waste" is going to be another era's treasure.

Just put it somewhere and hope it doesn't leak/leech into the environment.

Which is better than spewing it into the air with the absolute certainty that it is going to leak/leech into the environment.

You don't get down the road until you start driving, so why take a different road that doesn't get you where you are going?

Because there's only one road. Solar and renewable sources are great when available, but we will never get anywhere enough energy from them to run a modern civilization, and hydroelectric doesn't scale very well (besides having environmental problems of its own). Barring a miracle in harnessing fusion power, it's going to be fission, hydrocarbon, or nothing. We literally have to chose our poison.

IMO the right strategy is to build lots of small, absolutely identical fission plants, using the best proven practices, and don't worry about waste. Just stash it in a hole in the ground until it's either needed or until we can deal with it. It is a problem that can be put off and dealt with later.

Re:What?????

[pixelpusher220]

Because there's only one road

You may only see one road, but unless we start down a different one we will have problems. Nuclear fuel is finite, it won't last more than 100 years especially if we ramp up to full base load use.

Solar and renewable sources are great when available, but we will never get anywhere enough energy from them to run a modern civilization

You do realize that Solar and Wind each alone already provide multiple times the current worlds energy output right? Now combine them. Literally hundreds of times more energy than we currently use over the entire planet. We just aren't harvesting it. But there's *plenty* of energy there.

Renewables' current Achilles heel is the variability and that still needs research into storing the energy and transporting it. That's all oil/coal is, just a battery with energy in it to be discharged when needed.

Re:What?????

[Man On Pink Corner]

Nuclear fuel is finite, it won't last more than 100 years especially if we ramp up to full base load use.

That's only true if you count current sources. Existing uranium mines are only picking the low-hanging fruit. (Ideally we'd be transitioning towards fusion in another 100 years anyway, and then the whole resource question is moot.)

You do realize that Solar and Wind each alone already provide multiple times the current worlds energy output right?

Only the energy we can actually harness matters.

Re:What?????

[pixelpusher220]

Only the energy we can actually harness matters.

I laughed pretty hard at this. Especially since you just finished saying that we need to work harder to get more uranium.

Why not just work a little harder and harness renewable sources?

And you don't end up with trashed environments when the mines are emptied to boot.

Re:What?????

[Ihlosi]

Why not just work a little harder and harness renewable sources?

Pick one:

1. Economical, large capacity electricity storage (which we don't have, nor do we really have a clue about the technology to use for that).
2. Gigantic electricity grids to economically transport electricity over thousands of miles (which are hugely expensive).
3. Give up the notion of electricity supply being reliable. (which we don't want)

Re:What?????

[pixelpusher220]

1. Economical, large capacity electricity storage (which we don't have, nor do we really have a clue about the technology to use for that).

Obviously anything tough we've never done and we just can't do it so just sit still. Vegas is already experimenting with molten salt storage for solar power energy storage.

2. Gigantic electricity grids to economically transport electricity over thousands of miles (which are hugely expensive). [emphasis mine]

As opposed to $4/gallon gas? get ready for double and triple that rate within 20-30 years. See #1. Add recent possible advances into room temp super-conductors and pretty soon you have 0% transmission loss over distances.

3. Give up the notion of electricity supply being reliable. (which we don't want)

See #1. It's already proven that adding enough wind turbines actually creates a usable base load since the wind is always blowing somewhere. Put a solar collector in space and microwave it down gives you solar power at night too.

Try thinking big rather than thinking about next week sometime.

Re:So what happens

[daem0n1x]

You metamorph into manbearpig.

Interesting factoid

[ChienAndalu]

Hunters also have to pay a fee to dispose of the boar carcass. So some let the animal go to a neighboring territory where the animals can be shot to be eaten.

Re:Profit

[slick7]

No question marks in this one

1) Kill Boar 2) Irradiate it 3) Sell to German government 4) PROFIT!!!!111!!!

Bacon that cooks itself, what's better than that, other than bacon with ketchup.

exploding game

[Anonymous Coward]

"You don't have to be a nuclear physicist to realize that it's only a matter of time before one of these deer reaches critical mass, and some unsuspecting sportsperson takes a shot at it, and BLAM, all that's left of the immediate forest is a large crater and a mushroom cloud containing billions of tiny glowing sports molecules. We can only hope, as caring humans, that such a tragedy never occurs; or, if it does, that it will be available on rental videocassette." --Dave Barry

Holy nostalgia

[Jake Griffin]

Holy nostalgia! Thanks, samzenpus!

Picnic time for teddy bears,
The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today.
Watch them, catch them unawares,
And see them picnic on their holiday.
See them gaily dance about.
They love to play and shout.
And never have any cares.
At six o'clock their mommies and daddies
Will take them home to bed
Because they're tired little teddy bears.

Re:Holy nostalgia

[Jake Griffin]

And for those who don't understand the reference:

From the article: "Germans who go out in the woods today are sure of a big surprise, radioactive boars."

From the song: "If you go out in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise. If you go out in the woods today, you better go in disguise..."

Re:Holy nostalgia

[Crippere]

Teddy Bears' Picnic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Bears'_Picnic I too am grateful for the flashback, sans acid even!

Re:So what happens

[GameMaster]

SpiderPig?

There is some good news

[GammaKitsune]

At least the Yao Guai and Deathclaw populations remain at normal levels.

Re:There is some good news

[SYSS Mouse]

I am not sure if Washington D.C. has any wild boar to be contaminated. (The parent post is a reference to Fallout 3)

The mind boggles

[tchdab1]

So now we have wild animals that can be classfied as radioactive waste?
Put it in the freezer for 50,000 years!

Is anyone working on breeding an animal that concentrates human-made radioactive pollution, a biological wild skimmer?

Re:The mind boggles

[natehoy]

And, yes, such an animal exists. They are called "boar."

(see also "sheep" in the UK, which have the same issue with Chernobyl fallout, and "reindeer" in certain Nordic regions, not to mention carnivores in a lot of places)

Lichen (aka. reindeer chow), fungi (loved by boar) and certain other plants (probably including the grasses or some other plant that sheep eat a lot of) are apparently great radioactivity concentrators.

Fortunately, C137 has a half life of about 30 years, not tens of thousands, so in a few hundred years the radioactivity remaining in most animals should be low enough that this isn't a problem any more. As long as we keep building reactors safely and running them to standards such that they don't blow up, we'll only glow when it's REALLY dark.

Re:Profit

[Talderas]

Bacon that cooks itself, what's better than that, other than bacon with ketchup.

Bacon coated bacon that cooks itself in bacon fat.

(With a side of ketchup)

Obligatory

[mathimus1863]

I, for one, welcome our new radioactive grass-eating overlords

fraud?

[frovingslosh]

"According to the Environment Ministry in Berlin, almost 425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in 2009 in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated by radiation to be sold for consumption...."

I'm sure that if we had a system of government payments for radioactive wild boar meat in the U.S.A. that there would be plenty of claims and payments here too. Any government program designed to hand out money attracts fraud in great numbers, why assume that this isn't happening here?

Re:fraud?

[h4rr4r]

Because untainted boar meat is far more valuable?

Re:fraud?

[h4rr4r]

That could have happened only because rats have no other value. If you did such a thing with wild boar you would be better off selling the meat on the open market, you would make more money that way.

Re:fraud?

[operagost]

I'm sure that if we had a system of government payments for radioactive wild boar meat in the U.S.A. that there would be plenty of claims and payments here too.

You couldn't go outside without an orange vest south of the Mason-Dixon.

Re:fraud?

[swb]

Except that farm-raised boar is called "pork" and there's already a low market price associated with it.

Re:fraud?

[Ihlosi]

Any government program designed to hand out money attracts fraud in great numbers, why assume that this isn't happening here?

Artificial contamination with radioactive materials is trivial to test for and, in our current political climate, would land anyone trying to dabble in such things in prison for life + half an eternity for nuclear terrorism ... if they survive their arrest by the SWAT team (or rather, the SEK or GSG9).

Re:fraud?

[Ihlosi]

Is it even possible to be sure the radio activity is from Chernobyl, and not from another source?

If the radioactive crap from Chernobyl hadn't been blown over most of Europe, do you think the world would have made such a fuss about it?

But if you know any other source that could deposit radioactive Cesium and Strontium over half a continent, I'd be interested to hear it.

Re:Profit

[MyLongNickName]

Bacon coated bacon that cooks itself in bacon fat.

You, sir are my new hero!

(With a side of ketchup)

Never mind you damn vegetarian freak!

Must... stop...

[DdJ]

...must not make "Peter Porker" joke...

Re:Must... stop...

[natehoy]

SuperManBearPig!

Re:Profit

[theshowmecanuck]

The are going to put the meat in emergency/fallout shelters. It will keep indefinitely.

Not all mutations are bad

[NotQuiteReal]

and the boars are thriving

Pigs and People are pretty close, genetically speaking. They do medical testing on them, right?

Maybe eating these pigs would yield some unforeseen benefits.

Re:Not all mutations are bad

[natehoy]

Wild boar live about 15-20 years. They also are vegetarians which means their diet is concentrating this material for you. If you were to eat boar regularly, your own exposure to caesium-137 would be far higher than that of any of the individual boars you consume.

Carnivores have a lot higher concentrations of radioactive material, but we don't care about their radiation levels because their meat is generally nasty so humans don't eat a whole lot of it.

There may be unforeseen benefits, but they are pretty much outweighed by the foreseen and well-documented side effect of increased cancer rates.

Radiation-induced cancer from low-level radiation generally takes many years to develop, so even if the boar ended up with lots of it, their population is not about to be destroyed by something that takes most of (or more than) their lifespan to develop.

It also generally develops after fertility, which means it wouldn't really affect a "thriving" boar population to have old non-breeding boars die off. It might even be good for the younger population - less competition from no-longer-breeding elders for food.

One could, if one lacked compassion, say the same for humans. But that doesn't mean I want to die of cancer for the good of my species. Glowing Boar is not on my personal menu of choice.

You are free to make your own decision in that regard, of course. In general, I'd recommend against it. But I only have one child, and she's not on Slashdot, so I can say with great confidence that you aren't my offspring so I have little authority over what you choose to do.

If you experience any positive side effects, please do write back, OK?

Re:Not all mutations are bad

[Renegade88]

Sounds good. You'll take the first bite, right?

What about Chicken Chernobyl?

[GarryFre]

Bacon Brights - see in the dark dog food.

Re:I find this article boaring ...

[Lars T.]

I was expecting Giant mutant boars rampaging through cities and destroying buildings and then ultimately being stopped by a Giant Robot (or a Giant Lizard).

http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB122937877627908421.html

Re:Profit

[h4rr4r]

You would make a lot more money selling the meat to resturants and it would involve less upfront investment as you would not need to purchase a radiation source.

"Radioactive Boar"

[darth dickinson]

"Radioactive Boar" would be an awesome name for a heavy metal band...

Re:So what happens

[Noitatsidem]

I just want to glow in the dark!

Kosher

[Ukab the Great]

If there are mutant boar running around that ruminate (i.e. chew their cud), you'd have the beginnings of a kosher pork industry.

We'll give their descendants jobs in Duke Nukem Fo

[PDX]

We'll give their descendants jobs in Duke Nukem Forever. We'll just give them a gun and a badge.

Re:Profit

[mangu]

Bacon that cooks itself, what's better than that, other than bacon with ketchup.

Bacon coated with cheddar cheese inside a doughnut with ketchup.

Well, I for one...

[blair1q]

welcome our pre-cooked bacony overlords.

Boar hunting

[zildgulf]

To hunt boars in America it takes cunning, patience, stealth, patience, an uncanny knowledge of the boars' habitat, a good aim, and more patience.

In Germany all you need to hunt boars is a Geiger counter and a good aim.

Re:Boar hunting

[mrmeval]

Ah lol?

In the US you cannot sell the meat radioactive or not. Our hunters are not compensated for game they cannot consume that I'm aware of. Prion testing is offered in states where it is an epidemic. I'm kind of shocked that Germany would pay squat to a hunter. I support hunting and game management by purchasing hunting licenses, buying ammo and firearms and several other supplies. I'll listen to a hunter cry in his beer about the mutant hog he couldn't eat but I'll be damned if the government should line his pockets. Sheesh the pansies.

Re:Boar hunting

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Wild boars cause incredible crop damage to farmers in Germany. In areas with a large wild boar population, farmers pay hunters a token fee to keep the damage at a minimum. Most of the hunters' compensations comes from selling the meat to restaurants. It's a delicacy and tastes delicious. The Frischlinge (baby wild boars) taste quite outstanding.

To hunt boars in America it takes cunning, patience, stealth, patience, an uncanny knowledge of the boars' habitat, a good aim, and more patience.

In Germany, the wild boar hunter builds a small tower at the edge of a farmer field. He then crawls up there with his weapon, and a thermos of coffee in the evening. At then waits for a wild boar to show up. And waits. And waits. And waits. So your comment about "patience" is the same for hunters in Germany. Being a outstanding shot, and being able to keep quiet in the hunter tower are nice traits to have as well.

So the reason why the German government is compensating them, is that if they can't sell the meat, the whole endeavor isn't worth it anymore. And the wild boars are considered pests (varmints).

In the northern part of Germany, they have a problem with rats, that chew their way through the dikes. Bad news if there is a flood. So old, retired men keep themselves busy by killing the rats, and get paid something like 5€ per rat tail by the government.

Re:Boar hunting

[Golddess]

In the US you cannot sell the meat radioactive or not. Our hunters are not compensated for game they cannot consume that I'm aware of.

IIRC, an issue of the print version of National Geographic stated that some states do compensate farmers and/or hunters who cannot gather enough game due to wolf populations. I don't have the article on me so I cannot be sure exactly what it said.

cumulation in food chain

[aepervius]

Radioactivity fall out on earth,and is literally the radioactive long life element are absorbed by the tree and mushrooms, which are eaten by the boar, where the radioactive long life element cumulate. The radioactive cloud went over germany more than once.

Science class

[SnarfQuest]

In our science class, we had to dissect pig fetuses. What happens now?

Be careful when you slice into the legs. you don't want to puncture the web glands, or you'll be stuck in class for several extra hours.
Don't open the eyes, unless you have correctly attached your shark first.
Watch out for the mouth. you can get either a nuclear flame blast, or a vampire bite.
If you spot anything that looks like a button, don't press it!

By the way, your parents have signed the waiver, haven't they?

After the Bomb: Road Hogs

[Culture20]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_Hogs

Re:I find this article boaring ...

[powerlord]

Thanks for the link.

Great read from WSJ about the growing problem of Boars invading cities in Germany, even if the article is 2 years old.

(really, a good "related read")

Re:Profit

[Culture20]

No question marks in this one

1) Kill Boar
2) Irradiate it
3) Sell to German government
4) PROFIT!!!!111!!!

Irradiated =/= Radioactive. Radioactive things can irradiate other things. Irradiated things _very_ rarely are ever radioactive. This is why irradiating food to kill pathogens should be more accepted, but the radioactive/irradiated conflation is what keeps the public fearful of irradiated food.

Chernobyl made the flowers bloom

[handy_vandal]

"My grandparents reported that the day after the Chernobyl meltdown every flower in their yard had bloomed overnight. They said it was beautiful and very frightening."

-- Anecdote related to me by a friend whose elderly grandparents live in Austria.

No, SpiderHam

[NotSoHeavyD3]

We just have to get one of those pigs to bite a spider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiderham

Hunting tips

[electricprof]

So I'm guessing it's best to hunt these boar at night ...

The German nuclear industry also has problems

[laron]

IMHO nuclear power requires a kind of long-term thinking that is utterly alien to modern politicians and industry managers.
Case in point: Back in the 1980s there was a political decision to develop an old salt mine (Gorleben) into a long term storage for highly radioactive waste. But today it seems that the major reasons for that decision were
A) Gorleben was close to the Border to East Germany
B) The people there would be grateful for any jobs and would keep voting for the conservative parties forever

Geology seems not to have influenced the decision very much, which is a pity as a similar testing facility (Schacht Asse) developed great problems.
Only a few decades later, those criteria seem irrelevant today, and yet the stuff will be dangerous for thousands of years.

Re:Profit

[Enderwiggin13]

Not indefinitely...does anyone know the half-life of bacon?

Re:Obligatory nerdy semantic argument.

[OhHellWithIt]

The boars are not radioactive. Only elements that emit radiation are radioactive. The boars are contaminated.

If they're contaminated, what is it they're contaminated with, if it's not radioactive material of some kind? (I mean, they still wouldn't be kosher even if they weren't contaminated, but I'm just trying to understand the semantics in play here.)

Re:So what happens

[camperslo]

Not much. You find yourself quite boared.

Miyazaki film?

[Yaddoshi]

Am I the only one thinking this is like Princess Mononoke?

Re:Profit

[cmiller173]

naturally that will be deep fried, right?

Re:Profit

[cmiller173]

In my house, about 6 min.

Missing options

[tempest69]

Watch the TED talk about a traveling wave reactor. It should allow for orders of magnitude of more power, as your burning the depleted uranium.
Sure renewable is great.. but the problem is that the third world isn't going to want to foot that bill as they rise in affluence. Heck it's tough to sell Americans on it. And renewable cant respond to increases in load, a coal plant can increase the feed rate of fuel. Solar, wind, tide cant change mother nature, Geothermal can operate below peak which is similar to a normal plant.
My take is that nuclear energy is pretty safe, very clean, and can provide a good amount of power for a good amount of time. Of the dangers in life, nuclear power is a low end issue, with a high end benefit. All sorts of other dangers overshadow it compared to benefit we gain from exposing ourselves to that degree of danger. And as far as I can tell, renewables aren't enough to provide the level of power that we need to replace our fossil fuel usage.
I'll take a small chance of nuclear danger over a certainty of noxious exhausts.

Storm

Re:Missing options

[pixelpusher220]

You call it a 'small chance'. The 9/11 attacks were even less than a 'small chance'; it simply wasn't a credible threat. That is my point. We simply don't know what the 'next threat' is going to be so claiming we're safe from it isn't good enough.

And renewable cant respond to increases in load, a coal plant can increase the feed rate of fuel. Solar, wind, tide cant change mother nature, Geothermal can operate below peak which is similar to a normal plant.

Too funny, you don't even understand that this issue is the same for both. Just like you don't build a coal plant to max out at average load, you don't build renewable to only handle average. You simply build a bigger plant [more mirrors/windmills/etc], just like you do with a coal plant. Every plant has a maximum output, you build enough supply to handle all the peaks.

And for the record, coal doesn't react quickly at all to demand changes. That's why coal plants have gas fired generators on site to handle the peaks in demand.

Solar and wind however, come online at the flick of a switch. Or a reorientation of the mirrors or blades etc.

Re:Missing options

[pixelpusher220]

Sure renewable is great.. but the problem is that the third world isn't going to want to foot that bill as they rise in affluence. Heck it's tough to sell Americans on it.

Forgot the cost factor, people expect the cost of renewable sources to come down over time. Frankly they really won't, at least not appreciably.

However, the cost of non-renewable sources is only going up as supplies and the environmental costs of their use are tallied. So in the long run renewables are going to be much much cheaper than the other options.

The question is, do you want to pay really high energy costs while also then paying the high cost of rapid renewable development then, or do you want to take our relatively cheap energy costs now and use this time to invest in renewables over a longer period so we aren't paying both high costs and high development (i.e. rapid) costs later?

To tranquilize radioactive boar

[countertrolling]

Stick them with an inanimate carbon rod.

Soon to be sold as a German Cultural Recipe

[Crypto Gnome]

Glowing-Green Ham, and Eggs!

Mutants !!!!!

[FragHARD]

So when do we see the mutant 5 tone boars or boars with two heads or six legs????

Re:Profit

[Ihlosi]

Not a big volume money maker but the chance to do it is there.

The areas affected by contamination are pretty well known and the contamination can definitely be measured in the environment.

Also, if you get caught doing stupid stuff like that, you'll most likely land in prison for the rest of your life, because you're obviously a nuclear terrorist.

Additionaly, uncontaminated wild boar meat fetches a pretty good price. There's absofrickenlutely no point in taking whatever compensation the government offers if the boar you just shot is fit for consumption by humans.

How would irradiation make them radioactive?

[noidentity]

A portion of the wild boar population in Germany was irradiated after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown

I don't think merely being exposed to radiation would make the boars radioactive. If that were the case, we'd all be radioactive since we're exposed to it every day. Now, if the boars ingested radioactive material, I could understand.

Re:Profit

[RockDoctor]

Well, you set the challenge yourself :

No question marks in this one
1) Kill Boar
2) Irradiate it
3) Sell to German government
4) PROFIT!!!!111!!!
--
rule number 1 of slashdot: ANY thread can be twisted into a bash of microsoft. no exceptions.

OK, how are you going to twist this story into a MS bashing?

[/Self : This should be good for a laugh if he can do it. And good for a laugh if he can't. Win-win!]

Re:Profit

[WaroDaBeast]

You forgot the part where you search the corpse for a hoof and sell it to Sidorovich later on.