On this day, the researchers struggle to move a 90-pounder, its jaw taped shut, toward a small concrete box on the floor. They tape the animal's feet to keep it still. Then they slide its tail into the box and check a gauge on the side.
They're looking for radiation.
The alligator on the Savannah River nuclear weapons site serves as the modern-day equivalent of a canary in a coal mine, a measure of federal efforts to manage a legacy of contamination left by a half-century of nuclear weapons production. At this 310-square-mile compound and a half-dozen other sites across the country where secret labs, nuclear reactors and manufacturing plants built the nation's nuclear arsenal, scientists capture and test thousands of animals a year to assess the government's progress in tackling some of the world's most daunting — and costly — environmental cleanups.
Patrolling land and waters tainted by radioactive waste, toxic chemicals and heavy metals, researchers catch fish and salamanders, trap feral hogs and deer, and monitor bees and ants. They even search for radioactive animal droppings. Read the full report here.
Source: by Peter Eisler and Marisa Kendall, USA Today.
