This paper reports body burdens of radionuclides and dose-rate estimations for wild mammals from areas contaminated by radioactive waste disposal. Body burdens determined by radioassay are compared with body burdens estimated by an equilibrium equation. The data were gathered in a pilot-scale field study and will be used to design a more comprehensive study of large numbers of wild mammals. The more abundant radionuclides included Sr90, Ru106 Cs137 and Co60. Almost all of the mammals radioassayed had body burdens that were greater than body burdens expected from world-wide weapons fallout. The estimated whole-body dose rate from internal sources to one muskrat trapped in a settling basin for radioactive liquid waste was 112 rads/week. The estimated whole-body dose rate from internal and external sources to cotton rats trapped on the White Oak Lake bed was 2.9 rads/week. Information from a population ecology study was used with the bioaccumulation data to estimate the quantity of radionuclides held by a cotton-rat population.
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Kaye et al. (1962) studied this question.