Plutonium is very dense. It is not likely to travel very far, and there is little release of it so far. The biggest risk for lasting contamination of the surrounding area is cesium 137.
It is quite simply pointless to make statements like "The effects of radioactivity will be long term". It's a question of where radioactive substances are located, what quantity and which substances. Just mumbling about radioactivity is meaningless. We live in constant radiation with a natural average annual exposure of about 2.5 mSv and adverse effects from doses of < 50-100 mSv are speculative and unproven. Some populations live in areas with much higher than average natural radiation with no measurable ill effects eg Denver Colorado.
Unless there is a dramatic turn for the worse at the plant, there is good reason to believe that ill health effects from radiation exposure will be minimal.