HI, Morgana!
It's definitely not the radioactivity that's affecting him. I went with the mystery illness from Home Is Where The Hurt Is. So the poor trapped workers only have to deal with the high levels of radiation they were exposed to.
Radiation seemed to be...only as inconvenient as the show needed it to be. The only time we saw Clark as being a threat to regular people after being exposed to radioactivity was during that rather regrettable Nazi episode with the bomb in the mine tunnel. All the other times, he was good to go - Luthor's nuclear leak, his treatment for ingested kryptonite in Top Copy, even the reactor leak he was tending to while Lois was on that rigged up mat doing jumping jacks after she learned his secret (episode name escapes me at the moment). So maybe he had some sort of natural shield to it that neutralized it enough for him not to be a threat to others? Who knows? I just followed along with the "he usually isn't a threat" trend.
I could see Bernie being let in on things if the need came. But right now, CK=S isn't really relevant to the treatment. So keeping him the dark is the better option - after all, you can never untell a secret.
Thanks for reading!
