Can't read German. My source is Physics for Future Presidents by Richard Muller, a physics professor at Berkeley. He says that's the United Nations estimate.
Wikipedia also says the estimate is 4000, and references a report by the United Nations Scientific Committee of the Effects of Atomic Radiation. It goes on to say that UNSCEAR later decided that was an over-estimate, and that IAEA data corroborates that. It has citations for everything.
Wikipedia also says the estimate is 4000, and references a report by the United Nations Scientific Committee of the Effects of Atomic Radiation. It goes on to say that UNSCEAR later decided that was an over-estimate, and that IAEA data corroborates that. It has citations for everything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#cite_note-Ch...
Even if the death toll was 17,000, that's still less than the number of U.S. deaths from coal each year.