[Brilliant]

I think you’re wrong. There is another power plant very close to the old one at Chernobyl, which is currently operating. Obviously, people don’t live on the site of the nuclear disaster, but within a few miles of there, yes.

There is a very interesting youtube video that talks about the “sarcophagus” at Chernobyl. Apparently, people were even moving back into Chernobyl when the video was made back in the early 1990’s. I think they said they started to move back about 6 years after the accident.

Of course, there was a 40% increase in thyroid cancer. I suppose that some people might call that “uninhabitable,” but since the rate of thyroid cancer is not very high in the first place, increasing it by 40% is still probably not very high.

[spetznaz]

It is quite possible I am wrong. I will willingly agree to that, particularly since I was basing my statement on a documentary I watched a couple of weeks ago on Chernobyl that was showing ghost towns that are as they were when the evac order was issued. I do not have any hard facts apart from that doc (and I would hardly call it a hard fact), thus it is possible you are correct.

Anyways, as for nuclear energy, it is easily one of the safer energy choices out there. Especially compared to sources like coal. The only problem is that one incident and suddenly calls for banning nuclear power come out. Quite interesting how the human mind simply goes to the most extreme option available, even when logic would entail otherwise. :(