Contaminated Kids: Radiation Exposure 101

reply to post by RUSSO


Thanks Russo.

...There's a lot more info to be posted and discussed. Have been distracted but hope to get back here soon.

Nice thread! Flag!

"Radiation is the sixth sense" has been in my "signature" since 2005 when I was living under high tension lines.

In 2006 there was a google video series called "Depleted Uranium Alert" that is worth taking a look at:

video.google.com...

Sri Oracle

Originally posted by PuterMan
reply to post by soficrow

 

I cannot believe that "the people in charge" were SO stupid that when they had a choice of going with the virtually radiation and risk free Thorium nuclear reactors they chose Uranium based reactors so they would get plutonium to play with. That should have been made a criminal act and they should be made to pay the price.

That fateful decision is what has led to ALL of this, the depleted uranium, the reactor problems in various countries and people being irradiated throughout the world.

Then I further cannot believe that these people can be so damn stupid as to build nuclear reactors in earthquake prone areas - and indeed almost right in the firing line, and that does not just apply to Japan. How much less risk there would be if those had been Thorium reactors?

My dearly beloved, my better half, often says of these situations that the world would be better off without men. For obvious reasons I cannot agree with that

but she has a point.

The world would certainly be a much better place without these men who only consider their own greed and warmongering and have no consideration for the planet or the people on it.

Greetings:

Thank you for a great comments (as usual) and please take a peek at the "off-site content" box following "LIFE FUNCTIONS CRITICAL..."

22 June 2011
Newspaper Reports Massive Fukushima Nuclear Radiation Testing Blackout In Canada

Following recent reports of radiation saturation doubling, private companies, government agencies and universities in Canada are refusing to get involved in Fukushima nuclear radiation fallout testing at any level.

The Canadian newspaper The Beacon is reporting that following recent media reports that radiation saturation has doubled local farms attempted to get their soil tested for nuclear fallout to be sure that the food that they are selling is safe.

Much to the surprise of the newspaper and the farmers private testing companies, government agencies and universities all refuse to test the soil or get involved on any level.

The newspaper points out that the refusal is particularly shocking following reports that [color=limegreen]Japan has admitted to covering up the amount of radiation released from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, now admitting to 100% nuclear meltdown in 3 nuclear reactors and a radiation release comparable to Chernobyl levels.

The Beacon says [color=limegreen]while no government radiation tests have been conducted, the Canadian health department insists that everything is fine and is there is no cause for concern.

Why does this sound familiar?

Health Canada Says, "No Worries."
Farmers in Central Newfoundland who were open to having their land tested for radiation contamination, will not have this work done by government agencies and private companies in Newfoundland and Labrador.
(...)
In the June 2 edition of The Beacon, it was discussed how the release of radiation from the Fukushima plant in Japan could potentially be poisoning Canadian soil, and possibly central Newfoundland. [color=limegreen]Evidence from various radiation monitors and news reports have shown that it has become a worldwide issue, and given that the airspace is shared, Canada and the U.S. have been directly affected as well.

Even though local farmers have not tested their soil and water, Nita Abbott of LA Farms, near Gambo, expressed an interest in having her land tested to ensure they’re selling a safe product.

The newspaper contacted private testing companies, government agencies, and universities to inquire if they would consider testing local farms. [color=limegreen]All of them said they were not interested in getting involved at any level.

Health Canada also reported that everything is normal.

Even though no official testing has been done in central Newfoundland, Ms. Abbott speculated, “I guess they feel they don’t have evidence to take it further.”

Worldwide concern

Even though central Newfoundland is considered safe, reports by numerous media establishments have shown that radiation saturation has doubled recently. According to a CNN report, Arnie Gundersen, Chief Nuclear Engineer, said hot particles are showing up in North America.
(...)
Nuclear engineers have also been finding hot particles or fuel fleas, which can cause cancer, around the world.

In Tokyo in April, measurements indicated that there are about [color=limegreen]10 hot particles a day, which is a high level of concern in what a normal person would breathe.

In Seattle, for instance, it went down to about five hot particles a day, which can lodge into lung tissue, the digestive tract or bone, and over time can cause cancer.
(...)
Media reports south of the border suggest that Japan was downplaying the severity long after people were being affected.

To this, Health Canada is insisting there is [color=limegreen]no cause for concern.

In Seattle, for instance, it went down to about five hot particles a day, which can lodge into lung tissue, the digestive tract or bone, and over time can cause cancer.

This cannot bode well for living creatures on Planet Earth, including the Pacific Northwest and Canada. We used to live near 15th & Pike in downtown Seattle, and the very thought of dying the slow death of radiation poisoning in such a beautiful city is reprehensible... well, actually, any place seems reprehensible at this time...

Hot particles have made their way across the Pacific, and at least the data for the Pacific NW indicates very high concentrations, the average person in Tokyo breathed about 10 hot particles a day, and the average person in Seattle breathed in 6.
source

Hot particles present significant health hazard when ingested or entered the body by other means.

They are several orders of magnitude more dangerous than the same amount of radiation emitted from a large source over the whole body because if ingested or inhaled, they do damage to cells at close proximity.
Wiki

WTF?

Does this imply that everyone in the affected area (entire West Coast of America) is already radiated "beyond repair?"


Somehow, this information seems appropriate here.

At certain stages of evolution, cosmic "humanities" discover new forms of science beyond the apparent control of matter. Structured dematerialization and materialization are part of them.

This is what your humanity has reached in a few laboratories, in close collaboration with other extra-terrestrial creatures at the cost of hazardous compromises that remain purposely hidden from you by some of your representatives.
...
Peace does not mean not making war, it consists in becoming what you are in reality: a same Fraternity.
...
We reached the conclusion that freedom is built every day as a being becomes aware of himself and of his environment, getting progressively rid of constraints and inertias, whatever they may be.

Despite the numerous, brave and willing human consciences, those inertias are artificially maintained for the profit of a growing centralizing power.

Until recently, mankind lived a satisfying control of its decisions.

But it is losing more and more the control of its own fate because of the growing use of advanced technologies, which lethal consequences on the earthly and human ecosystems become irreversible.

You are slowly but surely losing your extraordinary capacity to make life desirable. Your resilience will artificially decrease, independently of your own will. Such technologies exist that affect your body as well as your mind.
source

We are of the opinion that this radiation poisoning of our Fragile Planet must be addressed (and solved) by others than the inept cretins who are failing at this point.

How can we assist this this to occur? Who will listen and take heed?

For infants it’s a terrible valley of death we have created for them. As we shall see for years all of them have been born with already polluted bloodstreams and [color=limegreen]now the very young ones are dying in greater numbers on the west coast of the United States since Fukushima blew up.

After the first week, officials had enough information to call for evacuation of a wide area in Japan and also Hawaii, Alaska and the entire West Coast of North America. They really should have evacuated all of northern Japan and also the West Coast but that was almost as impossible as evacuating the entire planet or the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Evacuation of Planet Earth might be the best way for humanity to avoid the terrible nuclear, heavy metal and chemical toxicity we are now facing all at the same time.
source

Avoiding exposure is always the best plan but [color=limegreen]there is no way to avoid breathing in air contaminated with tiny hot particles.

Inhalation issues are much more frightening than ingestion issues because you can pick and choose what you eat and drink but you can’t buy bottled air.

Nuclear Toxicity Syndrome is about how to survive in nuclear and chemical hell.

But one cannot do what is necessary to survive hell if a person doesn’t know they are living in one.

We feel that perhaps the time is now for concerned citizens to demand accountability from their respective governments.

Obviously, Health Canada and the US/EPA do not have the best interests of their citizens at heart. Is it the same in other countries? In your country?

The question is why?

Are not these agencies made up of caring, feeling, breathing individuals who share the same fate as we, the people?

Or, have they been deceived into believing that they will be a part of the "saved" ones and the radiation will not deform or kill them, their children, their children's children, etc?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.

22 June 2011
CNN: "They lied to us:" Fukushima Radiation Release Comparable To Chernobyl,
100% Meltdown In 3 Reactors

Michio Kaku: In the last two weeks, everything we knew about that accident has been turned upside down.

We were told three partial melt downs, [color=limegreen]... don’t worry about it.

Now we know it was 100 percent core melt in all three reactors.

[color=limegreen](We were told) that minimal radiation was released.

Now we know it was comparable to radiation at Chernobyl.

And as far as evacuation, (we were told), 12 miles and that is it. [color=limegreen]
You don’t have to evacuate more than 12 miles.

Now they find hotspots, 4 hot spots, outside the evacuation zone.

34,000 school children now have radiation badges when they go to school...

Finally, some coverage in the MSM... such as it is, but a lot of peeps watch CNN.

The real question here is what will it take for the peeps to finally "get it" and do something?

Fukushima ‘still a ticking time bomb’
(...)
CNN: As a reported within hours of the earthquake and Tsunami, with hours not even a day, there were already statements from the company (TEPCO) and International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) saying there had been safe shut down of all reactors and we know now of course in the end that simply wasn’t true.

[color=limegreen]But from the very beginning they were trying to tell us that this was a safe situation.

Kaku: Within hours of the accident we now know it was like the Keystone Cops.

People that are clueless, headless, just running around crazy, not knowing what to do.

We can now reconstruct that accident minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour and we can see this chaos that erupted in the leadership ability.

CNN: What is happening to the people that are working there now?

Kaku: Well, as you know, [color=limegreen]workers are getting sent in and they are getting a year's worth of radiation within just 10 minutes at a time.

At Chernobyl, 600,000 workers had to be mobilized. Each one going in for just a few minutes and each one getting a medal from Gorbachev.

CNN: This will be a Hundred Year Cleanup?

How long with this take to cleanup in your view?

Kaku: 50 to 100 years.

CNN: And we are not there yet.

[color=limegreen]We are not even to the point of talking about the cleanup yet because they haven’t stopped the reaction.

It is still happening.

Kaku: Clean up hasn’t even started yet.

They are not even looking at getting to cold shutdown until next year.

Cold shutdown is when boiling stops. There is boiling water right there at the reactor releasing radiation into the environment and [color=limegreen]releasing radiation into gigantic vats.

CNN: How are they storing and disposing of this stuff?

Kaku: That is the killer (pun intended?) because we have all of these vats that are filling up now and [color=limegreen]they may have to dump it into the ocean again.

At that point the Chinese, the Koreans, the fisherman they get up all in arms because there is so much damage (to the reactor cores) that every time you put water (into the reactors to cool the fuel rods that are melting down) it just leaks right out again, highly radioactive, and it is filling up at the site right now.

CNN: So what do they do with it?

Kaku: Right now, they are just counting the gallons as they pile up desperately trying to bring more vats in but [color=limegreen]once they saturate they are going to have to dump and at that point it is another crisis.

Tepcospeak !

If one is truly interested in this particular part of this disaster, we have written about the thousands of tons and millions gallons of water being injected/sprayed/dropped - and thousands of tons and millions of gallons lost (?) misplaced (?) leaked out ?) - take your pick or add one of your own theories, as the numbers simply do not add up.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

CNN: Lets talk about the radiation in the environment, in the atmosphere.

We have been told that it would be [color=limegreen]measurable but a miniscule amount on the US West Coast
and around the world?

Is that true?

Kaku: It is still minimal around the world (based on what we are being told from government reported radiation readings). Most of the damage is concentrated within 20 to 50 miles of the reactor. That is where we have the hotspots, that is where we have 20 times normal amounts of (annual adult) radiation (limits) in school yards outside of the evacuation zone.

Kaku: But in New York City, (based off government released radiation measurements) you can actually see it in the milk. You can actually see it has iodine, 131, actually spiked a little bit in our milk in New York City, but it is very small.

CNN: Just even hearing that, though, even hearing that you can detect it, that there’s a catastrophe, the worst industrial catastrophe in history, we can see it in milk in New York, that’s frightening.

Kaku: That’s right. This could be the grand daddy of all industrial accidents topping Chernobyl at $200 billion, topping the Gulf Oil Spill at $15 billion, topping the Columbia and Challenger disasters out in space at about $10 billion.

[color=limegreen]This could be the world record holder for an industrial accident.

Kaku: Realize Chernobyl was one core’s worth radiation causing a $200 billion accident and it is still on going.

Here we have 20 cores worth of radiation.

Three totally melted, one damaged and the (rest in) spent fuel pools, 20 cores worth of highly radioactive materials.
...

Leave us not be too hasty with accolades, and leave us not be fooled; it is not as if CNN or any other corporate media outlet is doing any real journalism here... where are Anderson Cooper or Gupta now?

In Africa - where it is comparatively safe. Gupta was in Japan early on and skedaddled when he figured out the real deal... just saying.

Throughout this disaster, all the media has done is echo statements from US (EPA/FDA), JAPGOV officials and TEPCO, neglecting to do any real investigative journalism and reporting stories that were so blatantly false and non-nonsensical because it was the "official story coming from the Government."

The MSM has lied to we, the people, and will continue to do so.

Now, one might ask, what are we, the people, going to do about it?

For those of us who think we are somewhat alone in our feelings on this nuclear insanity issue that has the future of humanity (as we now experience it) at stake, we offer this assessment from a poster on CNN.com Blogs.

GoneToPlaid

"Ticking time bomb" is correct.

If the melted cores do fully breach their containment vessels by literally burning their way through the bottoms of the containment vessels, then you can instantly have a situation where tons of molten core material hits the huge volume of water pooled in the bottoms of the reactor buildings.

The resulting explosion would obliterate what is left of the buildings and blow off the tops of the primary containment. It may be only a matter of time before this actually happens, and this is the reason why Kaku recommends the Chernobyl option of burying the cores with tons of boron, sand and concrete.

No, the reactors did not shut down immediately after the control rods were inserted. Inserting the control rods merely begins the weeks long process of eventually achieving cold shutdown. You need to do some research about nuclear reactors.

It is factually correct that the nuclear reactions have NOT been stopped. This is why far more radiation than was "expected" is showing up in the water filtration system which keeps breaking down.

In fact, it may be impossible to completely stop the nuclear reactions now that the cores have fully melted down into giant masses of molten slag since it is now impossible to moderate the nuclear reactions occurring at the center of the giant masses of molten core material.

And here is another view:

Swarming Bee Theory

I give Mr. Kaku a lot of credit for making a continued effort to speak openly about the situation in Fukushima.

What does it take to see, really. What does it take?

I cannot believe there are people on here who expect to be taken as representing a real viewpoint and are still, in the face of THREE core meltdowns, containment pools blown into the upper atmosphere, etc, persisting with the fallacy that because no one DIED this month everything will be ok.

It is nothing short of insanity to persist with this debate over the merits of nuclear fission used in applications like this.

Nuclear fission as practiced today is an antiquated technology, dangerous beyond measure, as in LITERALLY beyond measure. Some of the components of radioactive waste have a half life of 200,000 years, some 700,000 years, some more that that. Far longer than any administration in the history of our good country, that's how long.

It is remarkable to me that the rabid right wing tea partiers etc are always whining about the country swinging left.
The truth is it is money and power.

If we turn our attanetion of it; smoodfedswskjjwejjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjl wjk

A pound of plutonium could kill every human being on the planet.

And yet we continue to allow ourselves to be drawn into arguments with self-serving profiteers, people and corporations with no fealty to the US or to life in general, but rather to profit at any cost.

This highly organized miliitant faction of the US government in concert with the multi national energy cartel is working hard to have us believe this is actually a rational and reasonable alternative to aggressively reducing our current demand (like in Las Vegas counties for ex) combined with a solid commitment to alternative energy development.

It's nuts.

There really is no good reason to continue.

All plants should be immediately shut down and decommissioned.

The nuke plants shouid be scrapped.

Immediately.

How about it, "Nuke Team ATS?"

Obviously, TEPCO hasn't stopped the reaction(s), as continuously rising levels of I-131 indicate that there are uncontrolled nuclear reactions going in the melted cores and/or elsewhere.

Which may lead one to this question:

Considering that the boron additive utilized to moderate the fission process has a lifespan directly corresponding to the proximity to the radioactive material and the amount of materials being released, where are we on that timetable?

Specifically, has the boron reached the end of its lifespan and does the remaining "dead boron" accumulate and further hinder additional boron injections?

And an interesting comment from this poster regarding censorship on another forum:

Fukushima 'still a ticking time bomb' – In the Arena - CNN.com Blogs
majia nadesan

Hi Michael I'm glad you responded to my comment because it provides proof my comment was posted before being taken down by some sort of censor.

I'm reposting. Let us see how long it is up this time.

First of all, it is not at all clear that workers at Fukushima have not died. Read the article: Contract workers registered with TEPCO have mysteriously disappeared from the contractor’s employment records. Mainichi: "Whereabouts of 30 nuclear power plant subcontractors unknown: Health Ministry"
mdn.mainichi.jp...

Good catch!

We actually thought something was up along those lines and received some interesting comments here:

Second, there is considerable evidence of ongoing fission at the Fukushima plant reactors given the ongoing production of Iodine-131, which has a 8 day half life.

See Gunderson’s Fairewinds updates www.fairewinds.com... and Washington’s blog for an essay with citations on ongoing criticality georgewashington2.blogspot.com...

Third, spent-fuel pool #4 is an ongoing cataclysmic disaster. Building #4 was damaged by #3’s explosion and the spent fuel pool in #4’s attic was reported by the NYT to be cracked.

This pool is full of rods and is leaking water and was recently found to be 2/3 empty, meaning there was a high likelihood that the fuel rods were exposed.
www3.nhk.or.jp...

Fourth, de-contamination of the radioactive water has not gone well and has had to be stopped over and over because of various problems
www3.nhk.or.jp...
www3.nhk.or.jp...

Fifth, radiation releases continue to be very large
sankei.jp.msn.com...


“Estimates of the radioactive materials emitted double doors opening to the Fukushima No. 2 unit building 1.8 billion becquerels”

DISREGARD INDUSTRY TROLLS AND DEMAND TRUTH, TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Well said.

We can only add to that, this:

Deny Ignorance.

In Peace, Love & Light

tfw

Prof Busby calls Jap/Gov & Tepco criminally irresponsible. Current rad levels are 1000 times higher than during the height of the nuclear bomb testing in 1963.




Children's exposure can be measured as follows:

Over 5 years of age multiply exposure X 5
Under 5 years of age multiply exposure X 10

Radiation in Japan: Chronic Nosebleeds, Diarrhea, Lack of Energy in Children in Koriyama City, Fukushima

Ear th Science News

If you want to know how to make nuclear chain reactions talk to a nuke engineer or physicist.

If you want to know how much radiation a human body can tolerate talk to a doctor. Why are we letting the engineers and physicists tell us what is safe? Especially when they are employed by the nuke industry and their livelihoods are dependent upon the continuance of nuke energy!

Radiating Americans with Fukushima rain, food: Clinton's secret pact

Not surprised.

[excerpt]
Gundersen told SolarIMG that high-level people he knows in the State Department said Hillary Clinton signed a pact with her counterpart in Japan agreeing for the United States to continue buying food from Japan, despite that food not being properly tested for radioactive materials.

"So we are not sampling the food coming into the United States," he said, repeating, "The US government has come up with a decision at the highest levels of the State Department, as well as other departments who made a decision to downplay Fukushima."

In April, the month after the powerful tsunami and earthquake crippled Japan including its nuclear power plant, "Hillary Clinton signed a pact with Japan that she agreed there is no problem with Japanese food supply and we will continue to buy them so we are not sampling food coming in from Japan" according to Gundersen.

Due to this high degree of secrecy enshrouding the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, that Gundersen said is ongoing, he has called on Americans with Geiger counters to send samples to him for an independent research team's study.

Greetings:

Meanwhile, back to the Fukushima World-Killer Nuke Meltdowns and the [color=limegreen]continuing radiation poising of our land, food and children - 24/7/365.

zorgon, what is your take on this?

Well, I spent three weeks following that Fukushima story doggedly... then in the end I found out three things...

1) Except for a handful of people and those that live in the area... NO ONE CARES...

2) We are still here... 1000's of nuke tests (especially near my home town) medical radiation, space radiation, CME's, cell tower radiation, microwave radiation... etc etc.. and we are STILL HERE.. and world population is increasing exponentially

3) Radiation is good for you

Greetings:

Thank you for your insightful and timely response.

1) We have been attempting to sound the alarm in the many nuke-related threads in our signature, and have come to the same conclusion: NO ONE CARES...

However, having spent the last six weeks on the road in the Hurricane Irene-ravaged areas of North Carolina, we were amazed - no, dumfounded - that [color=limegreen]NOT ONE PERSON we spoke with (including fellow First Responder Volunteer Firepersons) had any clue about Fukushima 24/7/365.

The Captain of the local department said that "there is no problem, or the USGOV/EPA would alert us, and it would be on television, right? (!???!)

Revised Conclusion: The people have been denied the basic information to make informed decisions as to how best "handle" the radiation poisoning nightmare.

2) Never thought that you would not be (there) "here" - after all, who would want to leave that pool? And whatever happens in "here" (there) stays in "here," (there), right mate?

3) You and Ann Coulter make such a great pair...

Glad to be back.

As we have been attempting to bring to light for over six months (!), there exists a world-wide conspiracy in the MSM to deprive the public of the facts regarding the dire consequences of the melt-throughs of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima-Daiichi.

Please listen up, people.

Your life and the lives of your loved ones may very well depend on your access to and use thereof of potentially life-saving information being kept from you by the EPA/USGOV.

The total number of days between Friday, March 11th, 2011 and Tuesday, October 11th, 2011 is 214 days.

The radiation poisoning of our people, food and land has continued unabated - 24/7/365 - for exactly 7 months.

For your edification and enjoyment (bewilderment), a few 'notable' stories that seemed to miss mass circulation and perhaps a peek at what might have been missed on the 6:00 o'clock news...:

Three days into the disaster, this FOR EYES ONLY memo circulated at the NRC.

14 March 2011
NRC ONLY Update – All 3 Reactor Cores Likely Damaged

15 March 2011
Fukushima Daiichi Units Degrading – Zirconium Fire at Reactor 4 SFP – Reactor 2 Possible Reactor Vessel Breach & Ex-Vessel Core Reaction

My goodness gracious! And we thought they (TEPCO/JAPGOV) said they had this "stabilized..." and presumably under control...

At least, that is what they (and the EPA/USGOV) would have you believe.

Fast-forward about six months to more headlines you may have missed in your local media:

21 August 2011
Fukushima Officials Worry New Discovery of Radioactive Beef Will Harm Reputation More After Farmer Confirms Cattle Not Fed Contaminated Rice Straw

21 August 2011
4,000 Potentially Radioactive Cows Without Radioactive Rice Hay May Have Been Shipped from One Farm in Namie-Machi, Fukushima

29 August 2011
Why the Fukushima Disaster Is Worse Than Chernobyl

31 August 2011
France Releases Map of Cesium-137 Deposition Across the Pacific – Shows the US More Contaminated Than Western Japan



[color=limegreen]Will this insanity ever end?

In Peace, Love & Light

tfw

Don't know how I forgot to mention it! .....

Radiation makes proteins misfold, often into infectious forms. That's the pathway to cancer and all the chronic protein-related diseases. ...Chronic diseases caused by misfolded proteins are already pandemic, covered under the umbrella of "non-communicable" diseases.

Time to fight the new global pandemic of chronic diseases

New cases of chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease are exploding throughout the world, even in the poorest countries. These conditions account for 63 percent of deaths globally, and 80 percent of those deaths are occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Chronic diseases are also incredibly disabling and have a major negative impact on economic development, as they occur at a much earlier age and rob families of their breadwinners.

In case you think this is a health issue, it's not:

Chronic disease to cost $47 trillion by 2030: WEF

"This is not a health issue, this is an economic issue…"

And in case you might blame the radiation, let's make it perfectly clear:

What's killing us? Diseases that will kill 9 of 10 Americans

…..cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and a variety of other chronic ailments. And worse, unlike some infectious diseases, they're quite preventable.

This new, ultra-deadly pandemic threat is caused by we, ourselves. Sedentary lifestyles, poor eating habits, smoking, and other high-risk behavior causes most of these diseases. ….

More than anything, the root causes are apathy and sloth.

[/sarcasm]

reply to post by soficrow


Then what are we to fight?

Let the foolish morons perish.

The elite provide the means, and the majority blindly follow.

Thosenwho are intelligent and wise enough, will have the best chances of surviving and procreating.

Score for the species

reply to post by unityemissions

Then what are we to fight?

Not each other.

reply to post by unityemissions

Thosenwho are intelligent and wise enough, will have the best chances of surviving and procreating.

One would hope, but apparently that's not how it works.

Seriously though. The main point is that prions are evolutionary mechanisms - normal proteins misfold in response to environmental change, become infectious. .....Radiation exposure is going to result in a raft of diseases related to protein-misfolding - some of which, like sickle-cell disease, are going to confer evolutionary benefits.

BUT - our corporate rulers insist that we view all these new diseases as genetic problems, NOT evolutionary solutions - and to focus on the economic situation, the monetary cost.

Big mistake.

Also, don't forget that prions and -successful evolutionary adaptations- seem to have some rather mysterious and genetically heretical methods of transmissibility that go beyond linear inheritance.

......