Avian uptake of fission products from an area contaminated by low-level atomic wastes

Birds living on the Oak Ridge White Oak Lake bed, an area contaminated by low-level atomic wastes, revealed a striking seasonal difference in uptake of fission products. Because the omnivorous diet of passerine birds is ecologically comparable to the mixed diet of man, uptake of radionuclides by wild birds provides an assay of amounts to be expected at the trophic level of primary interest to man.