system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why is it that Chernobyl is uninhabitable for many years while Hiroshima and Nagasaki are thriving cities?

Did the Chernobyl meltdown just release a lot more radiation?  More than a nuclear bomb being exploded over a city?  What's the difference between a meltdown and the bomb?  Thanks for any help!
gpt
The route in which a bomb delivers radiation is the opposite of a nuclear power plant.  Radiation contamination from a bomb comes largely from the neutron activation of materials around the bomb.  When the bomb goes off it makes neutrons, which temporarily make things radioactive.  These materials decay and life goes on.  Due to the low mass of radioactive material in the bomb (only 10-50 kg depending on the isotope), there's not much waste, and the waste that does exist, is scattered over a tremendous distance.

When a reactor operates, it makes neutrons, which activate material, but the bulk of the reactor's contamination comes from the waste generated from the fissing of the uranium.  Tons of uranium fuel goes into a reactor, which turns into tons of waste.  This waste is in the form of various isotopes, which all have different lifetimes.  Some waste decays to a stable product quickly, other waste decays in millions of years.  This waste contains elements from the whole perodic table, quite a few which are chemically very nasty.  Because of the form of the radiation (in waste), the amount of it (tons), concentration( around the reactor), and the lifetime (varying over a long time to a short time), reactor melt downs are much more of a problem then a bomb blast from the contamination view point.