To be fair, the number of people killed directly or indirectly from Chernobyl (as well as children born with birth defects, higher cancer rates regionally, etc) is hotly disputed and certainly higher than the "official" tally.
Don't we have Geiger counter that can measure the amount of radiation emanating from nuclear power plants, including Chernobyl?
The cover-up of Chernobyl lasted barely days.
> with no good estimate of the indirect deaths and illness from exposure.
Only a multitude of studies. The current consensus in the scientific community is that somewhere around 20,000-30,000 total deaths attributable to Chernobyl have or will occur.