It has been nine years since Japan’s Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, but scientists are still wondering how dangerous the meltdown site could be. To investigate, a team of researchers took unlikely help from nine rat snakes in the region.
The scientists attached GPS trackers and radiation dosimeters to snakes with the help of superglue and duct tape, reports The Guardian. It allowed them to measure radioactivity exposure levels while the snakes moved around the area.
Using snakes to track radioactivity
The snake study was published in the journal Ichthyology and Herpetology, will allow officials to plan on how to handle the remaining 444 square miles that remain fenced off as the Fukushima Exclusion Zone. While using snakes might sound like an odd choice, it was actually a deliberate move.
“Snakes are often understudied when it comes to other animals, but they are actually a vital part of many ecosystems,” lead study author Hannah Gerke told Earther. “They can act as both predator and prey in the food web, which means they have the potential to accumulate contaminants from the prey they eat and also be a source of contaminants for other animals that eat them.”
Basically, if the snakes are exposed to high levels of radioactivity, everything around them is exposed as well – and this allows the researchers a better idea of the region’s ecological health. The results varied significantly from area to area, the scientists learned.
More complex than assumed
That suggests that radioactive isotopes didn’t fall over the area in a uniform way, and relied on the underlying terrain, as per the research. Snakes that selected different habitats showed different levels of radiation even within the same area, which means the Fukushima Exclusion Zone is more complex than scientists thought previously.
Regardless, the researchers learned that tracking snakes and other wildlife will be a useful method for radioactivity levels going forward. Their work can be helpful in identifying which areas will become safer for humans sooner than other regions.
