[eliaspro]

Furthermore, Chernobyl isn't something for Europeans that was far far away or a long time ago.

Germany spends (and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future) millions each year to compensate for losses of hunters and farmers due to radioactive contamination which accumulates in wild boars and mushrooms which have to undergo inspection before being sold. Everything above 600Bq needs to be discarded as contaminated waste.

[nicoburns]

Yes, and it's worth bearing in mind that Chernobyl was far from the worst case scenario. We were very lucky that Chernobyl was located in an isolated area and that the wind didn't blow the radioactive material towards Kyiv or another densely populated area. A Chernobyl-like event that ended up making a major city uninhabitable would be a crisis on another level.