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The "official" Chernobyl death toll is complete BS. The nearby residents from Pripyat ( a 40,000 population "Science City") and nearby farming collectives, as well as the 25,000 workers brought in to try to seal off reactor #4 were all scattered across the former USSR.

Their medical records carry no annotation of their exposure.

They are not tracked or monitored in any way. The young ones don';t even know they were there, because to admit that is to bring the mark of Cain on yourself.

Those who were official plant employees all have the same exposure annotation in their records. Since the maximum amount of radiation any worker in their system could ever receive in their lifetime was 25 rads, all their records read "24.9 rads." Locals refer to it as the "administrative dose."

The effects went far beyond Chernobyl Goblast (County) Many of the heavier particles settled in Bellarus. There they fell in Gomel Oblast. The the rates of thyroid and breast cancer in Gomel were/are astronomical. Many Gomel women had their breasts removed as a prophylactic measure.

I've been inside the control building twice, inside Pripyat twice, and even inside the sarcophagus of #4 for 30 seconds to get some videotape. We also had a 16mm film camera (film is better than tape in low light) It all fogged in 30 seconds.

Best real world estimates, for total long term deaths, 118,000 +/- 8%.

Sounds horrible, but it's reality.... and remember, I'm in favor of nuc power!

PS, anyone who wants to go to Chernobyl, I can get you in with a Swedish Air Worker who cares for families there.

The woman living with my wife and I was a doctor in Russia. She's telling me that we shouldn't trust the stats from Russia on certain matters like Chernobyl radiation deaths. (old habits die hard)

If a patient was diagnosed with cancer, was exposed to radiation at Chernobyl, and was a smoker, the exposure to radiation was to be overlooked and the blame should go to smoking. She says that a lot of people died of thryroid cancer that was attributed to smoking.

She say that things have definitely improved there but the effects will linger for generations.