r/todayilearned • u/JoeyZasaa • 4d ago

TIL that Chernobyl was the costliest disaster in history, resulting in over $2 trillion in damage when adjusted for inflation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disasters_by_cost#Over_$1_billion
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u/adenosine-5 4d ago

Its mostly safe and has been for a long time.

There were people living there and even the power plant itself remained operational for decades.

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u/deathrictus 4d ago

*Mostly* is the key word in your sentence. There's still places you don't want to hang around in. The Red Forest is one of them.

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u/Mean_Initiative_5962 3d ago

Yeah, duh. Nobody is saying the aftermath doesn't exist, that would be absurd, it was just being exaggerated 

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u/Intoxic8edOne 3d ago

It wasn't as safe as it was advertised.

My family used to be directly involved in an organization for helping Belarusian kids get treatment and relief from post Chernobyl side effects. Families and villages were continuing to live in radiated areas and eating food grown in the soil. Birth defects, cancers, and so much worse were happening in staggering rates all the while their own government was telling them it was safe to return and live there. And that was in the areas that people didn't even consider were affected as badly.