The problem with that argument, although I congratulate you for following the state line, is that it requires us to believe that the entire operation wasn't necessary to begin with. If there were no health consequences, then there weren't any reactor rods on the roof, there wasn't any radioactive fallout requiring removal and burial of top soil, no need to shoot all the animals, etc. etc.

It also requires us to believe that there was no widespread looting in the area, which is a claim that turns up in multiple sources, and is consistent with Russian behaviour in the current and past wars.

It requires us to believe that unlike pretty much every other event in Soviet history, Russia has told the complete honest truth about Chernobyl.

On which front, let me just ask - where are the memorials to the victims of Stalin's purges? There has been plenty of time to put a few up since the Soviet Union fell.