Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2021
Dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies show a relationship between cancer incidence and the nearby operation of nuclear reactors. The 2008 KiKK study in Germany, which was followed three years later by the Fukushima catastrophe, led its government to announce the phase-out, now nearly complete, of all its 17 reactors by the end of 2022.
According to a 2002 study reported in the Archives of Environmental Health from 1985 to 1996, average infant death rates dropped 6.4 percent every two years. But in areas surrounding five reactors shut down between 1987 and 1995[*], infant mortality rates dropped an average of 18 percent in the first two years. Additional research at Maine Yankee and Big Rock Point in Michigan, both shuttered in 1997, showed that infant death rates fell 33.4 percent and 54.1 percent, respectively.
Four major studies include:
- “Childhood Leukemia in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants in Germany,” Peter Kaatsch, Claudia Spix, Irene Jung, and Maria Blettner [the “KiKK Study”], German Medical Journal International, Oct. 17, 2008.
- “Childhood leukemia around French nuclear power plants, the Geocap study, 2002-2007,” Claire Sermage-Faurel, Dominique Laurier, Stéphanie Goujon-Bellec, Michel Chartier, Aurélie Guyot-Goubinl, Jérémie Rudant, Denis Hémon, and Jacqueline Clave, International Journal of Cancer, Feb. 28, 2012.
- “Meta-analysis of standardized incidence and mortality rates of childhood leukemia in proximity to nuclear facilities,” Peter J. Baker, European Journal of Cancer Care, Vol. 16, Issue 4, July 2007.
- “Infant Death and Childhood Cancer Reductions after Nuclear Plant Closings in the United States,” Joseph J. Mangano, Jay M. Gould, Ernest J. Sternglass, Janette D. Sherman, Jerry Brown, William McDonnell, Archives of Environmental Health, Vol. 57, No.1; Jan.-Feb. 2002.
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