I have in mind that it's true the "cancer rates were way above.." (although from covid I am very sceptical as to what any such data means or if it can be collected honestly etc) but that the cancer was all thyroid cancer, and very very treatable - so it didn't translate to mortality.

Dunno, obviously, what you're into and not into, but 100% recommend the chernobyl tv series - not really for the historical / technical stuff (though there's a brilliant exposition of what went wrong and the stages of meltdown) but it was beautifully made, and has really stayed with me.