"Foreign doctors and specialists who have worked on the disaster calculate that during the previous decade (1986-1996) there has been a marked increase in cancer cases. At a minimum, the count of victims is about 75 thousand people. Two American professors, John Gofman and Karl Morgan, predicted that for the next 70 years about a half-million "extra" people will die of cancer...
(SNIP)
"In April of 1991 the Soviet scientist Vladimir Chernyshenko reported that as a result of the disaster at Chernobyl, it was not 32 deaths as officially reported, but rather 7-10 thousand, and the majority of these were firemen and military service members who fought the aftermath of the catastrophe.
-- From CHERNOBYL - NEVIDIMAYA SMERT' (Chernobyl - Invisible Death) in STO VELIKIKH KATASTROF (The 100 Worst Catastrophes) printed by "Veche" Moscow I.Ionina, M. Kubeev, 1999
It's important to COUNT the incidents of cancer from an exposure many decades ago, rather than predict them. An actual count (here: http://www.mendeley.com/research/twenty-years-after-chernobyl-accident-solid-cancer-incidence-various-groups-ukrainian-population/) shows a DECREASE in cancer rates.
Large dose radiation exposure caused problems for the responding fire crews, mostly by outright radiation fatalities. Radiation can also increased thyroid cancer rates. However, most of these can be prevented with appropriate iodine treatment. The low dose cancer rate scare stories are simply not born out by actual cancer rate data in exposed populations, both in Japan, and in Russia.