Scientists: WIPP radiation leak not a threat to Lesser Prairie-Chicken
By Zack Ponce
zponce @ currentargus . com @zackponce12 on Twitter
Posted: 03/25/2014 07:20:54 AM MD
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Thirty-three soil samples have been taken since the incident and all except one returned negative for any radiation above background levels. The one soil sample that turned up trace amounts of plutonium is believed to be remnants of the isotopes from Project Gnome, a 1961 test in which a nuclear bomb was detonated underground 25 miles east of Carlsbad.
Elsewhere, flora and fauna haven't been as lucky where radiation contaminated the environment. The Smithsonian Magazine reported last week that new evidence has arisen that the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in present-day Ukraine has also poisoned microbe, fungi and some insects in addition to animals and plants....
