Thanks for the recommendation, looks interesting; published 19 years after the event I guess this would be a biological snaphot of the natural state of the exclusion zone some 16-18 years post event .. but I'll see- on the list.

The early raising of public awareness about fallout dangers came from several people: Fallout: Hedley Marston and the British Bomb Tests in Australia (2001) by Roger Cross tracks one such scientist and his intersection with the likes of Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant (the man who talked the US nuclear establishment into building a nuclear weapon after convincing them it was in fact possible).