hOLY SHIT :-)
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It is so uninhabitable that it is now a tourist trap. You can get a day pass to visit the nuclear reactor. (no, you cant go inside, but you'll be able to take a picture)

If you stand outside the chernobyl plant, you will apparently be exposed to about 15 microSv/hr. That is about 131 mSv/yr, presuming you build a house right next to the deadly nuclear reactor and live there. Obviously you wouldn't do that since you'd be about 7% more likely to get cancer each year, but go out a few more miles and the radiation drops closer to 1-2 microSv/hr. 30km is just overkill, and the map is silly.

Chernobyl is more valuable to Russia as a wildlife preserve and a tourist destination than a town that no one wants to move to.
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Here's something to panic over a little.

The beautiful and witty Mrs. FAX is a co-chair of a THYCA group (Thyroid Cancer Survivors). She has told me that many of the people in the group (if not most of them) have been exposed to radiation in the past ... before they contracted thyroid cancer. Apparently, back in the old days, they used to use radiation as a treatment for juvenile acne among other things. Crazy.

Regardless of how proud you are of your macho balls, radiation isn't something to screw around with. Else, your balls may no longer function as balls, but more like little, shriveled, rear-view-mirror charms.

FAX
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We scientists like to say, "You take some rads, you lose your nads."

FAX
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Radium used to be a treatment for arthritis, and it fetched insane sums from afflicted individuals. In fact, the world's first true Uranium mine was located at a place called St. Joachamsthal, a resort town where people would go to bathe in the heated springs of radioactive water to soothe their aches and pains.
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You live in Tennessee, right? It's more than likely that a lot of individuals affiliated with your wife worked in or around the Oak Ridge complex
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You can visit the Nevada test site, too. It doesn't mean that you should live there.
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I'm unsurprised. But a little disappointed. Still, we scientists have to adapt to new facts as they're discovered. You can't expect us to know everything about stuff.

I was watching this program on the television thing one time about old-time inventions. They talked a lot about the use of x-rays for a variety of things like shoe-fitting in shoe stores and relieving headaches and stuff like that.

The x-rays were completely unshielded and, apparently, the shoe salesmen were always getting sick. I guess it's better to have a good-fitting pair of loafers than to feel good, though.

FAX
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Sure, it's not uninhabitable - if you consider a "community" where you can live for an hour or two before being forced to leave "inhabitable" (but be sure not to drink the water, touch the vegetation, or go anywhere near the Radiation signs).
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woops, made a calculation mistake.

If you build a house right next to the chernobyl nuclear plant and freaking live there, you will be 0.65% more likely to get cancer per year. Yes, that is zero point six five percent. (Those odds drastically go down if you are a few miles out)

Wow, deadly stuff, man.

That said, I dont blame russians for wanting to live somewhere else in their vast, vast nation, but chernobyl is NOT uninhabitable by any stretch of the imagination.

Seriously, abandon your primitive "I fear the unknown" caveman emotions and look at the cold, hard science.
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you literally do not know what you are talking about
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I have to agree with Mr. alnorth.

The cold, hard science proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that two-headed babies grow up to make excellent security guards.

FAX
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In all seriousness, though ... 0.65% may not seem like a lot, but I'll pass.

I prefer my chances of contracting cancer to be 0.00%, if you don't mind.

FAX
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I'm thinking you should should build your next house there. I'm sure you could get one hell of a deal and you would really be showing us. Might even be able to get you some of that tourist tang too. Don't worry though I will send you the most recent vaccines so you stay on schedule and plenty GMO foods.
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You literally are a moron.

Vehicle scrap yard: Important - Passage to "Rossokha" village, cemetery of military machineries - ACCESS FORBIDDEN BY THE GOVERNMENT STARTING APRIL 2008! The scrap yard contains the irradiated emergency vehicles which tended the disaster. There are a number of fire tenders, ambulances, trucks and helicopters in the vehicle graveyard, although some of the vehicles are now being sold as scrap metal. You will no longer be able to gain entry there, but as some of the vehicles are still carrying lethal doses of radiation, this isn't a bad thing.

...

Tap water in the area remains unsafe for drinking or washing because of the radiation that leaked into surrounding dams, lakes and rivers, so stick to bottled water or mineral water - which in Ukraine is predominantly sparkling.

...

Stay on roads, the radiation levels on areas covered by vegetation are significantly higher. Even more important, the risk for contamination when walking amongst vegetation is higher because it is more difficult to avoid touching or inhaling anything. Radiation ends when you leave the place, but you don't want radioactive elements inside your body. Follow common sense if you are on your own; if you see an area marked with a radiation sign, the meaning is clear: DON'T GO THERE.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Chernobyl

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