If you want to see what a thousand square mile uninhabitable wasteland looks like, here's a YouTube video of some guys swimming in a pool underneath the Chernobyl reactor for fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOughghZ8To
I'm so tired of hearing about how regulation is this magic salve that saves everything. Regulation is what caused Chernobyl. Soviet regulations mandated that the flawed RBMK reactor design be used. They knew it was flawed and they forced people to use it anyway. Because that's what government does. There's a similar story in western countries, where it hasn't been feasible to use better designs due to antiquated government regulations, it's just no one here has screwed up as badly as the Soviets did.
I'm so tired of hearing about how regulation is this magic salve that saves everything. Regulation is what caused Chernobyl. Soviet regulations mandated that the flawed RBMK reactor design be used. They knew it was flawed and they forced people to use it anyway. Because that's what government does. There's a similar story in western countries, where it hasn't been feasible to use better designs due to antiquated government regulations, it's just no one here has screwed up as badly as the Soviets did.