Comment by tdeck

This reminds me of atomic gardening, where you just blast plants with gamma rays and see if you get something useful

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening

They still do it in Japan, with a distinctive circular field that has a radioactive isotope tower in the center

https://www.naro.affrc.go.jp/archive/nias/eng/org/GR/IRB/