consequences of having a considerable area contaminated and uninhabitable for basically forever are not to be understated. humanity does not have the tools to predict black swans which lead to such results.
you're seeing what happened and extrapolate the future based on this. what didn't happen is equally important. Chernobyl was the worst accident, but it was by far not the worst possible outcome. e.g. if the core burned through concrete and contaminated ground water, it'd be way, way worse.
http://www.chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/radiation...
So no, I do not buy into the "basically forever".