Add to this the mounting evidence that the LNT standard for limiting exposure is probably a complete sham and it only becomes even more silly.

People could move back to the area around Prypiat and Fukushima RIGHT NOW and be fine.

Ehhhh. Uptake is the concern at those sites. There is a guy who stayed at Fukushima, he's taking dose but it's still going to be less than the background dose taken by the people who live in Ramsar, Iran.

Well that's just it, probably the most worrying single isotope is the iodine-131 but considering that it only has an 8 day half-life means it’s long gone. Add to that the various places around the world with much higher background exposure rates much higher than most of the Fukushima and Chernobyl exclusion zones that also have people living there with no ill effect…

I’m just saying if someone offered me 100 free acres of prime Pripyat bottom land I’d have no apprehension about moving in. Hell, we have instruments so sensitive to radiation that if I was really worried about it then it would be a fairly small matter to walk around finding and marking the ‘hot’ spots.

That's the cool thing about radioactive materials, as compared to chemical contaminants they at least have the good tact to tell us where they are.

I'd argue Cesium is more of an issue than Iodine. Cesium can bioaccumulate, and Iodine drops off very fast.

LNT's not a bad guesstimate, to be fair; the fact that it's now virtually certain it's got a large margin of error for safety is a neat bonus. Plus, as Ringshadow mentioned, there's confounding factors like bioaccumulation and chemical reactions affecting how the radiation is distributed in the soil to consider, too. Most of Chernobyl's not going to be a wise choice for living for a good long while yet; but it's already low enough for a holiday to the site, if you bring a geiger counter and play it safe on the visit.

Of course, the issue of perceived risk arises because folks like Greenpeace have spent 40-odd years persuading half the world that the reverse is true with regards to radiation safety, and the international standards are deliberately set too high because it's the only way the nuclear industry could 'get away with it'.

*sigh* The scientific illiteracy of people who claim to be 'experts' on such things astounds me - especially the ones who should know better. One scientist in the UK, Chris Busby, a long-time opponent of nuclear power, was recently unmasked as a fraudster after he tried abusing his position and his charitable foundation to sell his own homebrew 'radiation pills' to Japanese citizens whom he assured (via Youtube, it can be googled) that they had all been exposed to potentially deadly radiation doses, and the government was actively trying to cover it up and would never admit it. Worryingly, many environmentalists still believe his every word and cite him as an 'expert' in their arguments - including the UK's Green Party, who hold government seats.