> Risk wise, it seems much safer to work on and around a damaged nuclear reactor

Statisticaly, maybe. But as the saying says: There are 3 types of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.

"Of the 53,000 "at risk" workers a total of 17 cases of diseases such as solid cancer and leukemia had been recognized as work-related".

Without saying how many were not work related, it is just noise.