What if Biopreparat facility in Chernobyl?

Anyways, how do you guys think a nasty bug such as smallpox might interact with the radiation exposure it may get if a spill occurs? I'm not sure it would do anything at all, but I'm not sure so I'll ask you guys.

From Plague Wars by Tom Mangold and Jeff Goldberg.

Alibekov explained the Soviet delivery systems of BW agents, describing with precise detail the tactical aircraft with spray tanks; long-range strategic bombers carrying cluster bombs; strategic missiles with multiple warheads; and cruise missiles under development. In the event of an all-out war, he added, the biological agents used to strike strategic targets – like American and British cities – would not just comprise super-Plague and anthrax, but also viruses that cause serious epidemics, including smallpox and Marburg. Each city would be attacked with a cocktail of bacteria and viruses – at least three to five agents per attack – so the enemy activities would be fully disrupted within a couple of days; the civilian infrastructure would collapse and there would be few survivors. The will to continue the fighting would die with the people.

At the very end of months and months of long and careful debriefing, Alibekov was invited to write a study paper for the CIA of all the information in is possession on the entire Soviet BW programme. This long paper was considered so potentially dangerous should it ever fall into the wrong hands that it was given the highest US security classification that exists, and even Alibekov was not permitted to keep a copy or ever see it again.
 
Chimeras have been worked on for many years but you can't just try to take components from two very distinct viruses and expect they will work together and form a competent new virus. The problem with an 'Ebolapox' chimera is that Ebola and smallpox are so very, very different in structure and composition that the genome compartmentalisation and infection mechanisms will also be very different (i.e. how the two viruses function). If we use an engineering analogy, since viruses can be thought of as macromolecular machines, then it's like taking parts from a jumbo jet and trying to cobble them together with parts from a Formula 1 racing car and expecting to get a 'super racing jet'. It just won't work.

"Anyways, how do you guys think a nasty bug such as smallpox might interact with the radiation exposure it may get if a spill occurs?"

Radiation usually just kills things due to RNA/DNA damage, so a high radiation background probably just helps to sterilise the samples. Longer term exposure to a lower radiation level may lead to non-lethal mutations in the genome, which could obviously change it's characteristics. But just remember that viruses are not like bacteria in that they cannot self-propagate so there would not be the usual process of progressive selection of the fittes.
 
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