Too Much To Dream

Mmmmm...tasty yellow cakey goodness.

Actually "yellowcake" (uranium oxide) is amazingly harmless and only slightly radioactive (slow alpha particles--can be blocked by a sheet of newspaper or even your skin). The guy who ate some will probably have no ill effects at all, unless he ate a crapload (it is somewhat chemically toxic). However, if anyone got a good lungful of dust when they were dumping the barrels, they'll have a somewhat increased risk of lung cancer.
All in all, no big deal.
These people are at far greater risk of death from cholera in the water supply than from the yellowcake.

Still -- yuck.

Whew. Toren, I hope you're right, I was all set to be upset until I came back and read your post.