There are risks, certainly, but even the exclusion zone around Chernobyl is under ongoing re-evaluation with growing pressure to open up more of it for various use, as the main risk in large parts of it currently is not the overall levels of radiation, but 1) poor mapping of areas with higher concentrations, and 2) the risk of disturbing particulate or releasing material e.g. through forest-fires or stirring up dirt that may turn out to be more radioactive than expected.
Consider that even the Chernobyl plant itself continued generating electricity until 2000 - the remaining generators were shut down one after the other, but people were working at Chernobyl all the way through. Several thousand people work in the exclusion zone at any time, and several thousand more worked at the plant in the 14 years from the accident until its closure.
That's not to say none of them will suffer health risks, but the exclusion zone was set as large as it was largely because we didn't know how to manage it, and didn't know how to clean it up, and didn't know what the long term effects would be. We know a lot more now, and the indications are a lot less scary than the initial reactions.
It's now to the point where there are even proposals for agricultural use in the zone.
Consider that even the Chernobyl plant itself continued generating electricity until 2000 - the remaining generators were shut down one after the other, but people were working at Chernobyl all the way through. Several thousand people work in the exclusion zone at any time, and several thousand more worked at the plant in the 14 years from the accident until its closure.
That's not to say none of them will suffer health risks, but the exclusion zone was set as large as it was largely because we didn't know how to manage it, and didn't know how to clean it up, and didn't know what the long term effects would be. We know a lot more now, and the indications are a lot less scary than the initial reactions.
It's now to the point where there are even proposals for agricultural use in the zone.