Hm. After rereading the Wastelands book, I located the rad rules easily enough (can't believe I missed them the first time; doh!) -- so that's settled at least reasonably, I guess.

One question, though; does anyone know of an online map illustrating the general size of the irradiated area? I know it must be decently big to have smuggler groups (Geisterratten) operating out of it, in addition to multiple megacorps and various gangs -- but is it of provincial size, the size of a large city, or...? Unfortunately, I don't have access to the Germany sourcebook, and I checked my local games store with no luck. :/
Also -- to illustrate the idea I'm having, for critique or suggestion...
The running group is a bit fighter-happy, but most are new to the game so I thought I'd slant it survivalist instead of slinky -- I can ease them into slinking on that count, after all. What the group looks like is a pair of sammies, a decker and a rigger (probably t-bird). The general plot idea involves Feuerschwinge (big shock, eh?) -- going with the idea that his corpse was recovered by a megacorp and is being researched at nearby facilities (in or near the SOX), the players are used by a competitor in the biotech/metagenics/magic field to confirm the capture of Feuerschwinge and then to systematically retrieve research data and samples. Naturally, what exactly is going on is something I'll try not to reveal until some properly dramatic point, though allusion with a glowpunk gang worshipping Feuerschwinge and a later op retrieving a dragon's claw or scale (or -- hell, eye?) ought to make it -very- edgy, and very clear; especially if I start, say, including mention of S-K uniforms about that time, whereas before it'd be untraceable subsidiaries...