User blog comment:Mr.Xeight/Forum for the Federation of Greece in the Universe of 1983:Doomsday/@comment-2076280-20100823195833

Those people who remained in Hiroshima and Nagasaki also got radiation poisoning and were horribly scarred from it. Though, I do admit, after 5-10 years, almost all nuked sites could be reinhabited, but only fairly wealthy nations would be able to fund the rebuilding of entire cities. That would limit most reinhabitation to small communities of no more than a few hundred thousand (at most).