Why is Chernobyl deemed to not be habitable for 22,000 years despite reports and articles everywhere saying that the radiation exposure of being within the exclusion zone is less you’d get than flying in a plane or living in elevated areas like Colorado or Cornwall?

Question

Why is Chernobyl deemed to not be habitable for 22,000 years despite reports and articles everywhere saying that the radiation exposure of being within the exclusion zone is less you’d get than flying in a plane or living in elevated areas like Colorado or Cornwall?

In: 12368

Answer 1

ELI5: In the Chernobyl zone, there’s particles (dirt) that can enter your body and remain forever emitting radiation, the big (alpha) particles, the medium (beta) and the very small (gamma). Natural radioactivity, are only “invisible waves” coming from minerals or space, and are not being emitted from inside your body. The big (alpha) particles usually are stopped by a thin layer of paper, the medium (beta) stopped after 1cm of skin, and the very small (gamma), the most dangerous, is more scarce than the other bigger “particles”, in a natural radioactivity environment.