Gross exaggerations. It was never a reactor. The levels of radiation were marginally of concern, but the only danger there was the radium, which had already been around people for a long time. The Americium emits weak beta radiation, it won't even go through your skin. Just don't eat it.

People don't understand how low a risk radiation is, even at 1000X background radiation. And, the EPA standards are way, way to conservative.

If you want to be afraid, then consider this: I took a Geiger Counter up on an airline flight one time, just out of curiousity (this was before 9-11-2001). The counter maxed out at 10X the natural background radiation.

And yet, that still isn't much. As other commenters have pointed out, you get a lot more in CT scan. 1000X is not a big deal, unless you plan to spend a year being exposed. But you'd probably have to coat yourself in the radium in his "reactor" to get that level.

Make no mistake: too much radiation can certainly hurt you - raise your risk of cancer, or if it is an extremely high dose, even kill you. Marie Curie, radiation scientist, died of radiation poisoning. Two scientists at Los Alamos died of acute radiation poisoning during the Manhattan Project, when accidents led to fission in a nuclear bomb core a few feet from the scientists (two separate events).