No, I don't think the distinction between ingestion and external exposure is fredley's point. Indeed, a fixed amount of radiation is much more destructive when

No, I don't think the distinction between ingestion and external exposure is fredley's point. Indeed, a fixed amount of radiation is much more destructive when ingested. But regardless, that's not the point I'm disputing. I'm disputing whether "the radiation has been reduced to background levels" necessarily means the negative effect of the radiation has been made negligible. Rather, assuming the linear-no-threshold model, the number of radiation-induced deaths will not decrease.