Disproportionately High Contributions of 60 Year Old Weapons- 137 Cs Explain the Persistence of Radioactive Contamination in Bavarian Wild Boars.

Radionuclides released from nuclear accidents or explosions pose long-term threats to ecosystem health. A prominent example is wild boar contamination in central Europe, which is notorious for its persistently high 137 Cs levels. However, without reliable source identification, the origin of this decades old problem has been uncertain. Here, we target radiocesium contamination in wild boars from Bavaria. Our samples (2019-2021) range from 370 to 15,000 Bq·kg -1 137 Cs, thus exceeding the regulatory limits (600 Bq·kg -1 ) by a factor of up to 25. Using an emerging nuclear forensic fingerprint, 135 Cs/ 137 Cs, we distinguished various radiocesium source legacies in their source composition. All samples exhibit signatures of mixing of Chornobyl and nuclear weapons fallout, with 135 Cs/ 137 Cs ratios ranging from 0.67 to 1.97. Although Chornobyl has been widely believed to be the prime source of 137 Cs in wild boars, we find that "old" 137 Cs from weapons fallout significantly contributes to the total level (10-68%) in those specimens that exceeded the regulatory limit. In some cases, weapons- 137 Cs alone can lead to exceedances of the regulatory limit, especially in samples with a relatively low total 137 Cs level. Our findings demonstrate that the superposition of older and newer legacies of 137 Cs can vastly surpass the impact of any singular yet dominant source and thus highlight the critical role of historical releases of 137 Cs in current environmental pollution challenges.