Some individuals close to the situation have said that Arnold Ruutel, currently the president of Estonia, and formerly the Chairman of the Presidium of the Estonian Supreme Soviet, knew about the dangers of the catastrophe much before it was publically revealed. In his position he was informed by Moscow immediately. And yet he allowed a large public event to occur at the Song Festival grounds during the time that a dangerous cloud full of radiation was to pass over. If these allegations are even remotely credible, why has there not been an official inquiry into this?......Yes, we know the answer. His former cohorts are in positions of influence and won't let this embarrassing process take place.

The terrible disaster at Chernobyl twenty years ago resulted in catastrophic nuclear contamination in a small fraction of the Ukraine and some significant contamination in a small fraction of Belarus and Russia. Traces of contamination were detected in Europe as far as Sweden and Finland. Approximately 0.001% of the earth's surface was significantly contaminated. (That's of no comfort to the still-grieving families of victims or those who, today, are in ill-health and on the road to a premature funeral.) Yet, J-NEN quotes Greenpeace, with no trace of skepticism, when it claims that, "It has become clear that one nuclear reactor can contaminate half the earth.”
What are you, J-NEN, a reporter or a propogandist?

The casualty rates of the accident at Chernobyl remain unknown to this day, mainly because the Soviet Government never revealed any information about the matter. Gorbatchev just recently stated that, at the time, he feared public disclosure of the accident would cause panic among the public. (People would try to flee the danger-zones.)
Greenpeace has a richly-deserved reputation for environmental scare-mongering and, as such, they aren't a reliable source of information on this or anything else. Their ultimate goal is to turn us into vegetarians who ride bicycles and live in hippie-communes and their public pronouncements are shaped to that purpose. In other words, they lie to promote a noble objective.
I wonder who is referred to when J-NEN states that "...anti-nuclear/ Green Party movements accused the pro nuclear corporations of falsely lowering the anticipated number of deaths..."? I can't imagine that there is any verifiable detail available on this matter. Nonetheless, he probably believes it.
From sources other than Greenpeace, we know that, during the catastrophe, Soviet authorities kidnapped 5,000 young Estonian men and shipped them to Chernobyl to help put out the fire; 4,000 of them are still alive; although we might wonder about their health.
From sources other than Greenpeace, we also know that this kind of catastrophe can only happen in a society were the public is of little importance. Nuclear-generators in Europe and North America are enclosed in a protective silo to protect the public, in case of accident, by containing nuclear contamination to itself. It's also noteworthy that a protective silo has never been put to the test. There's a reason for that as well but don't tell Greenpeace. It would undermine their 'raison-d'etre'.