[(E)]

Site Zeno
When dealing with radiation there are three options, clean the area, minimize the effect or go somewhere else. Site Zeno explores all three.

Description
You walk slowly up the crumbling road encumbered by your suit. The hiss of the respirator soft in your ears as you see the earthen ramparts around the old bunker entrance. Oddly neat and even the four half buried plastic tunnels are stark in their newness compared to the rest of the abandoned world. The vibrant yellow of the fields nearby comes as a surprise as well.

Assumptions
-20 year lifespan bunker 1-2 hundred people, generic farming supplies, no internal farming beyond a basic algae system for improved oxygen endurance.
-Radiation is a threat, cobalt bombs, pessimistic assumptions about radiation used and so forth.
-Two main radiation vectors, environmental radiation and highly radioactive particulate matter, generically referred to as radiation from here on.
-The population avoids working outside unprotected.

Resources
-A bore providing clean water. Use is strictly limited due to fear of pulling radioactive material from the larger water table.
-Non-hybrid seed.
-A small TL 9 laboratory
-A large supply of miscellaneous equipment.

Requirements
-More variety to farm, crop rotations are patchy, plant health and fertility will suffer in time.
-A root food crop like potatoes for the trenches and sugar beets for the wild fields would be the most desired.
-Specialized machinery for biofuel crops.
-Fresh power cells or alternately sulphur and lead for batteries, required for Geiger counters
-Fuel and energy sources, possibly even wood to allow ceramic production.
-Building material and glass or clear plastic.
-TL 9 manufacturing equipment suitable for aeroponic manufacture would greatly decrease water consumption and disease risk.
-Animals, the addition of animals to the system will both improve production and reliability greatly.

Notes
-Site Zeno has been farming outside for less than two years. As such it is not fully developed. It has also yet to encounter many problems.
-They started with some heavy machinery and general purpose tractors suitable for farm work and a limited amount of fuel
-Ceramics might be used once clean plastic and metal products become scarce.
-Seed lifespan has been an issue

The Trenches
The main crop system at Site Zeno is a collection of trench greenhouses constructed from clear flexible plastic that was initially intended for deployable airlocks and hazmat tents. Each of these trenches has had the soil removed to a depth some 200mm (8 inches) below the top level of the clay that lies beneath the topsoil. The clay is relatively waterproof and radioactive material is unlikely to have penetrated that far, unfortunately raw clay is an incredibly poor soil. To replace the soil that was discarded the bunker’s waste has been mixed with clay, waste from the algae system and aggregate to make a growing medium. In place of traditional crop rotation a percentage of the crops are grown hydroponically in the old storage barrels to rest the soil.
Peas, maize and brassica dominate the plants grown. The small range of plants available make plant diseases a high risk factor. Seeds for wheat and other plants that were initially planned for failed to remain viable in sufficient quantity for early crops. Though some viable specimens exist in small numbers. Climate control is marginally difficult due to filtration and running the trenches at slightly more than atmospheric pressure, while successful the system loses more water than desired. Four trenches each 100m long by 10m wide.

Wild fields
This is a low maintenance crop system that produces farmed products that are not for biological consumption. This system is still in its trial stages however. An initial Maize crop was tried as a possible biofuel. This was not successful due to the need to use machinery rather than human labour. The equipment present is general purpose and as such up to ten machinery actions are required per crop. This could change if they can acquire specialized machinery or cultivars that improve their efficiency. Currently Site Zeno is trialing canola, the seeds have a long viable life and the pest population is low. The bunker has surplus nitrogen with which to fertilize it with at least to begin with.
The goal for this system is most likely a four crop rotation with Sugar beet, maize, canola and sugar cane.

Distant orchards
Small patches of clean land will exist, they are more likely in rough terrain and will be by necessity high in the catchment of any water courses. If these can be found fencing and guarding or patrolling them would allow for crops or orchards. Currently the only option available to the residents is melons. Once rootstock can be developed other more traditional orchard trees could be planted. The decision to plant species with large fruiting bodies was made to make checking for radioactivity easier.

The lab
Trained personnel are likely in this situation in fact they would be required to ensure that the few examples of viable seed from plants with a short seed life exist at all. They would also have worked to ensure the soil formulation is correct for the trenches.

Skills present
-Farming
-Biology
-Chemistry
-NBC
Many others as this is approximately 20 years after the end.

Ratings
Food
Water
Health
Climate
Genetics
Management

Crunch
Soil for maybe 3-4 hectares.
Trenches produce about 10000-12000 lbs per acre per annum at this stage.
Making Site Zeno about 5-10% self sufficient at this stage for food. They have maybe 2-3 years to get that to 100%.
Canola would have a net yield of between 470 litres per hectare (50 gallons per acre) on a good year and would run at a net loss of fuel in a bad year.

Not covered are plant selection and treatments that reduce the uptake of fallout.
more traditional GURPS units have been used more often here. This is because there is now a set of rules to estimate output designed with GURPS in mind