Research looked at young children living near the sites
A 35-year study has found no evidence that young children living near nuclear power plants are at an increased risk of developing leukemia, the BBC reports. Scientists from the UK Committee of the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment looked at populations within 5 km of nuclear power stations from 1969 to 2004, and found only 20 cases of childhood leukemia. Looking within a 25-km radius, they found only 430 cases in 35 years, both rates virtually the same as where there are no nuclear power plants. They called the risk “extremely small, if not zero.” Another study in Germany, published in 2007, did find a significantly increased risk, but the team said this may have been influenced by one unexplained leukemia cluster near one plant in northern Germany that lasted from 1990 to 2005.