People living near nuclear power plants in the US face a higher risk of cancer compared to the average across the country, researchers at Harvard University have said.
The study is the first this century to compare the proximity of nuclear power plants with cancer mortality across all facilities in the US and across every county. It also comes as countries around the world are looking to ramp up installations of nuclear power plants as a low-carbon source of baseload energy on the electricity grid.
The researchers looked at data collected between 2000 and 2018 using “continuous proximity”. Advanced statistical modelling was used to capture the cumulative impact of all nearby nuclear power plants, rather than just one, even those located across the Canadian border.
The data also took other variables into account that could explain early mortality, including educational attainment, median household income, racial composition, average temperature and relative humidity, smoking prevalence,...