"The explosion simply blows out a massive crater of radioactive dirt, which rains down on the local region with an especially intense and deadly fallout," Dr. Nelson wrote last year.

If it is detonated close to the ground, it produces even more radioactive material by irradiating large amounts of dirt and spewing the newly radioactive dirt all over the place.

While one extolled California's environmental laws on cleaning up toxic landfills and curbing production of hazardous wastes, another explored New Jersey's problem with disposal of Montclair's 15,000 barrels of radioactive dirt.

Up to 470,000 tons of radioactive dirt - enough to fill 9,700 rail cars - are quite another.

Prepare to decontaminate individuals exposed to fallout : The objective of decontamination is to remove the particles of radioactive dirt or dust that have come in contact with the skin or clothes.

When he explained about the radioactive dirt, they would kid him, asking whether he glowed in the dark.

There were also concerns over radioactive dirt found in a school playground in Fukushima.

"That's because you don't have Outlanders tracking radioactive dirt into your office two or three times a day to tell you exactly how they think you should be doing your job."

All day long, huge trucks filled with 20 tons of radioactive dirt from Carteret Park rumble by, rattling Mrs. Allin's china and making cracks in her walls.

It was as if he had given up; he had accepted the radioactive dirt and it had begun its job, long ago, of burying him.