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juicerider said..
Very earie footage, thanks for sharing, and apparently due to the heigh level of radiation and long half life, it won't be habitable for about another 20,000 years.
....."apparently" 20,000 years. But only if you want to renovate the old reactor itself of course....
There are people living there full time now (against advice) and the remaining reactors (there were 4 all up) operated for up to 15 years after the event, so people kept working at the plant for a long time and continue to do so without much drama.........
There are also organised tours through the area and the estimated exposure you get on a tour is about the same as you get sitting on the plane on the flight there.
The background radiation is elevated for sure. But the base background levels there are about the same as the highest inhabited naturally occurring radiation on the planet. ie there are people living in places on earth with the same natural background radiation levels.
I'm not saying it should be opened up for resettlement as there are dangers with spots of higher radioactivity that are definitely not desirable to be near longer term, but it is far from a toxic death zone.