I would rather classify that as "unfortunate". Yes there are obviously biological harms in radiation exposure but that is what science & engineering is for. We know the power of nuclear energy so in order to harvest it, the right thinking should have been like "How can we safely extract it so that it does harm people in the mix?" rather than "Oh its harmful to humans so obviously we should give up and not use it".

Current fission startups are working on versions of reactors which eliminate most of the harmful byproducts in the process.