Chernobyl in the news now is blamed for 50 deaths directly and about 4000 eventual deaths. I think I heard the high number you mention and I could not find it. I think Greenpeace or some group suggested 200,000 (I'm not checking now, so may have both the group and number wrong). So, I would have no idea if the high numbers are credible.

By the way, when I posted about plutonium being good for beagles my point was that at least I would question such a study. Lots of scientific studies come up with wrong conclusions. Before I would tentatively believe that plutonium was good for beagles I'd want to see the design of the study. Maybe beagles don't live long enough to develop certain cancers. Maybe there were not enough beagles studies (no, I don't think they should irradiate more beagles). Maybe the study did not run long enough. Someone (you, Tony?) questioned where the funding for this study came from...
Chris