[Einstalbert]

That seemed odd to me until I compared it with the passage before it; that Fukushima grows much of the agriculture in Japan seems startling enough, but then I don't claim to know much about radioactive fallout and growing crops within x, y, z miles. I probably wouldn't eat Chernobyl beets.

[sliverstorm]

Apparently background radiation in Chernybyl is half what it is in Denver.

https://sites.google.com/site/radioactivityinbasel/radioacti...

[lotharbot]

The geology building at Colorado School of Mines (a few miles west of Denver) used to have a display case in the main hallway with a Geiger counter running 24/7, and posters explaining what different spikes meant (ie, uranium decay made the needle move to such-and-such number). Sometimes I'd stand in the hallway between classes and watch. It was never more than about 15 seconds between decay events.