I'm not sure what point the author is trying to make. Because there are natural sources of radioactivity entering the water and air, we shouldn't sweat leaks from nuclear facilities? The original writer's point was about drilled well water contaminating downstream waterways, but considering the relative volumes involved that sounds like a stretch. As far as the facts, I couldn't find anything in the scientific literature to corroborate the claims, but they're not unreasonable, and John Love seems to be a reliable source when it comes to Wyoming geology. Radium in particular is documented to be present in the water of numerous springs and creeks in Yellowstone, and the biological half-life of radium (how long it takes to eliminate half of it from the body once ingested--not to be confused with the physical, decay half-life) is fairly long because it gets incorporated into bones. In humans, it's been estimated at 15 years according to one journal article. It seems plausible that rodents that spend their entire lives drinking radium-bearing water and eating plants grown from the water could accumulate enough to create images on photographic plates. Is there anything useful to conclude from this? Well, if it's true, don't eat the chipmunks. If you must eat the chipmunks, try to eat young ones that haven't had very long to concentrate radioisotopes. Regardless, like farmed fish (often contaminated with small amounts of heavy metals) don't eat them too often, and your prognosis will be indistinguishable from someone who has never tasted radioactive rodent. How often that is depends on the actual amount of radioactive material in the average chipmunk, how much of that is in edible tissue, and the rate, type and energy of the radioactive emission. David Schwarz <div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 9:19 AM, <<a href="mailto:Lee_Whittlesey@nps.gov" target="_blank">Lee_Whittlesey@nps.gov</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"> Considering that you geyser guys are usually interested in the subsurface geology that is so responsible for our thermal features, I'd be interested in seeing your comments about the link below, which has to do with alleged radiation and radioactive rodents on Crawfish Creek, Polecat Creek, and Pitchstone Plateau. The link is below. Lee Whittlesey Park Historian, NPS YNP <a href="http://soundpolitics.com/archives/014699.html" target="_blank">http://soundpolitics.com/archives/014699.html</a> _______________________________________________ Geysers mailing list <a href="mailto:Geysers@lists.wallawalla.edu" target="_blank">Geysers@lists.wallawalla.edu</a> <a href="https://lists.wallawalla.edu/mailman/listinfo/geysers" target="_blank">https://lists.wallawalla.edu/mailman/listinfo/geysers</a> </blockquote></div>