There's a story somewhere (I thought it was on that site, but looking again I can't see it tonight... anyway, maybe it's one of them urban myths) the guys drafted in to clean up after the incident had been offered a choice - do one small task at the chernobyl site (amounting to a few minutes work), or spend 2 years in Afghanistan fighting. What a choice.
Going back off topic with the pripyat stuff, this is a great site i found a couple of years ago on the subject: http://26-04-1986.com/