Scientists Track Radioactivity Through Roadkill

A research group wants to know the location of roadkilled game animals to track the potential movement of radioactive materials from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

The Environmental Science and Research Foundation says wildlife usually is the loser in collisions with vehicles, creating roadkill on the federal reservation in the Arco desert.

The foundation is sampling roadkill from those routes on the INEEL as a potential pathway for radionuclides to move off the site. Those pathways include game animals, air, soil, groundwater and locally grown food.

The deer, elk and pronghorn antelope often travel off-site where they are taken by hunters. Eating their meat could be a means of exposure. Instead of killing additional animals at the INEEL, the foundation samples the organs of the dead ones, including the liver and thyroid tissues.