It wasn't hysteria. It was an estimate based on the fact that, at least according to the reports I've heard, they've evacuated the area for a 50 mile radius around. Now, for the purposes of discussion here on the forum, I speculated that might be the case because - I admit - I am ignorant of how it will ultimately turn out.
But it is insulting to ascribe it to some sort of hysteria. An approximation while things are still going on is all *anyone* can come up with, even someone with overwhelming knowledge and immune to all forms of hysterical thinking.
Okay, 50 miles? Say what?
The original radius was 8-10km, and they bumped that up to 20km, which is 12.4 miles. You may not be the source of the hysteria, but it’s still hysteria.
They scanned 19,000 people and found 38 with “higher than average,” but non-hazardous, levels of radiation - 2/10ths of one percent.
I wonder how much useful work in restoring food, water, and shelter could have been done in the time spent on the hysterical scanning of nearly 20,000 people to no meaningful benefit?
The point most fail to appreciate is reactor #3 is fueled with 7% Pu-239 which is far more dangerous than U-235. The good news is its half life is only 24,000 years vice U-235’s 700 million.
USing the ‘evacuation’ area as a predictor for uninhabitable area is either fear mongering or a woeful lack of knowledge of what is going on.
The area around Chernobyl was less than 20 miles when all was said and done.
The reason they are evacuating such a large area is to make sure nobody is exposed to large amounts of airborne contaminents until the situation is under control. These contaminants (I-131, C-137 for the most part) are all very short half-life particles that will be complately cleansed by natural functions within hours/days/weeks.
At that point the ‘evacuated’ areas will be completely safe. They will probably be safe, but slightly to mederately above ‘background’ radiation levels much quicker than the full half-life period.
The only unihabitable zone will be where the larger Uranium or Plutonioum particles, etc fall — and right now those are all being contained within the plant itself.
The one worrisome issue is ground water contamination, and even that is relatively minor when compared to Chrnobyl and should be confined to the immediate area of the plant.