ABSTRACT
An entire academic ecology program at the University of Georgia arose around Radioecology research in the Southern Coastal Plain region at the Savannah River Site in association with nuclear reactors built there for plutonium and tritum production. The driving force was the famous ecologist Eugene P. Odum, who saw both the positive and negative aspects of atomic energy development. A large amount of then-cutting edge ecological research was undertaken there, including use of radiotracers to map pathways of energy flow in food webs. The research started in the early 1950s on old field ecosystems and it continues to the present with a focus on radioactive contamination studies.
