I like to think I'm just leery of exaggerating the problems. Sure, I wouldn't go doing whatever inside the restricted zone etc. and sure there are quite unhealthy hotspots there...but knowing people who live right there, and not just average joes but scientists and doctors specializing in genetics etc. areas has lead me to think the effects of radiation are hugely exaggerated as a rule.

There's no question that there is radiation still detected from Chernobyl etc. but if one takes into account the natural radiation levels the values are nothing spectacular.

Here we typically get 0,30 microsieverts per hour quite natural. If I take a flight to Europe on my holiday,on one way trip I'll get about 30 microsieverts altogether. During the Chernobyl disaster the radiation levels in Europe were similar to that level during the days it took place, so it'd be comparable to forcing everyone take a few long flights.

But if you for instance go to have computer tomography imaging done on you in a hospital, you'll get roughly 600 times that radiation level in a matter of minutes.
One could spend his entire life very close to the Chernobyl reactor site, with luck even right by it, and never get the amount of radiation you could get from a handful of X-rays and such.

Sure, it killed some 30+ people outright, but after that, it's a fact that in Chernobyl, compared to the general population of Russia, the emergency workers whom cleared Chernobyl suffer 15% to 30% LESS cancer, and have 5% less solid cancer incidence. Just look at the recent WHO and UNSCEAR etc. raports. Not to mention the people who were still working right there at the adjacent reactor till recent days are doing just fine too. Hundreds or thousands of nurses and such have amassed way more radiation and also died of it working with Xrays.

I'm not saying radiation is a blessing, but it ain't the monster it's so often made out to be. A little radiation is only beneficial and quite natural really :-)