A recent, 23 year government study around nuclear power plants showed higher than normal cancer rates:

Children under five years old living near nuclear power stations have contracted cancer at a greatly higher rate than the national average, a study by the German government said Saturday.

The risk of cancer increased by 60 percent for children living less than five kilometres (three miles) from a nuclear power plant, according to the study by the federal office for protection against radiation. The risk was 117 percent higher when only leukemia was taken into account.

The study looked at statistics from between 1980 and 2003 in regions near 21 reactors or former reactors.

The German Environment Minister is saying it can’t be “explained by exposure to radiation:”

“To explain this increased cancer risk, the population would have to be exposed to radiation at least 1,000 times higher than what comes from German nuclear power plants,” he said.

With cancer rates that much higher than the norm among young children, an explanation is certainly needed.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 8:54 pm and is filed under Children, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Health, Science, Technology, Uncategorized, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.