"People living in the affected villages are very distressed because the information they receive... is inconsistent," an International Atomic Energy Agency [3] official said about the world's worst nuclear accident. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl [4] nuclear power plant "spewed a cloud of radioactivity"; the amount of radiation released, the distance it traveled, and its health and environmental impacts remain in dispute. An IAEA Chernobyl Forum [5] is now compiling "authoritative, transparent statements" for next year's UN General Assembly. One nuclear engineer who studied Chernobyl has warned [6]: "The IAEA is in the business of promoting nuclear energy, not discouraging it." Earlier IAEA studies were "sharply criticized in scientific journals [7]"; in 2000, the agency stated "there is no evidence of a major public health impact [8]" from the Chernobyl radiation.