> I assume the best solution then is just to keep an exclusion zone, and shrink it over the decades as the Cs decays? That's exactly how it's handled now, but

> I assume the best solution then is just to keep an exclusion zone, and shrink it over the decades as the Cs decays? That's exactly how it's handled now, but it takes several multiples of 30 years to make a real dent in the radiation levels. 200 years maybe, depending on where you set the cutoff. > Why did they expose so many humans (liquidators) to radiation trying to clean this up? Shouldn't they have just evacuated the area and waited a few decades? The liquidators were exposed cleaning up and building the containment unit around the actual reactor building, not working in the wider exclusion zone, where radiation levels would be much lower.