Radioactive Boars Have Taken Over Japanese Towns

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Radioactive Boars Have Taken Over Japanese Towns

It sounds like something from a horror movie, but radioactive boars have actually taken over abandoned Japanese towns near Fukushima.

Fukushima was home to the nuclear power plant that was damaged in the tsunami of 2011. The damage caused radiation to leak into the surrounding countryside and forced thousands to abandon entire towns due to unsafe living conditions.

Boar
Mashable

The deserted towns created a perfect environment for the boars. Lots of food, lots of space and no humans to chase them off.

Hunting parties have gathered to try to address the problem.

"After people left they began coming down from the mountains," said one hunter. "They're not going back."

Now, six years after the disaster, residents are finally ready to move back home, but they have to find a way to chase off thousands of wild boars who have moved in. To make matters worse the boars have high levels of radiation, over 300 times the safe limit for consumption.

That means the obvious answer of what to do with them - eat them - is off the table.

Government officials have dug mass graves, but those are piling up with 200-pound boar carcasses. Thousands have been killed, and hundreds more still roam.

One city proposed a plan to burn the carcasses and filter out the radioactive material, but there aren't enough people to safely manage such a job.

Fukushima Radiation
The Guardian

Already many former residents are refusing to move back, boars or no boars. They're concerned the radiation still lingers and will cause health problems.

Over 150,000 people were forced to evacuate the area after the disaster, and nearly 100,000 never returned. The meltdown and resulting clean-up cost the Japanese government nearly $18 billion.

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