PAUL161 said:
I never read that story. Parts of it gives me the chills. It's hard to imagine an area being useless for 100,000 years. (Forever). I have to read it again.
The 100,000 years refers to the damaged reactor, which if left alone, will continue to be very dangerous. I am sure that after a time efforts will be taken to decontaminate and properly dispose of the radioactive rubble.
The main problem with the dead zone (other then the area immediately around the plant) is cesium 137 in the ground and therefore in the plants and animals. For this reason the 30km area is off limits to agriculture. Fortunately cesium has a half life of 30 years and will be down to acceptable levels for agriculture in 90-120 years.
Well before that, human occupation can occur, but without an economical base will not be much.
The upside to this accident, is that the area is rapidly returning to it's natural state and by the time agriculture can resume, it will become one of the few natural landscapes on the planet.
The sad part of all this, is it is not the only place in the former USSR, or for that matter the US, where the rapid development of the technology exceeded our ability to properly protect the environment.
All said, I still believe nuclear power is the only real solution to the earths energy needs and fortunately accidents like this and Three Mile Island have lead to much safer technology.