A massive new study suggests more research is needed to understand the potential health effects of living near nuclear power plants. The findings arrive as policymakers across the political spectrum are pushing for the expansion of nuclear energy in the U.S.
The study found that U.S. counties located closer to operational nuclear power plants (NPPs) have higher cancer mortality rates than counties farther away. It was led by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and published last week in the journal Nature Communications.
“Our study suggests that living near a NPP may carry a measurable cancer risk—one that lessens with distance,” said senior author Petros Koutrakis, a professor of environmental health at Harvard, in a press release. “We recommend that more studies be done that address the issue of NPPs and health impacts, particularly at a time when nuclear power is being promoted as a clean solution to climate change.”
The research arrives at a moment when nuclear energy appears poised for a comeback. Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for reforms to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that oversees the industry and administers licensing. The order also called for expanding American nuclear capacity from roughly 100 gigawatts in 2024 to 400 gigawatts by 2050, arguing that nuclear power could ensure the nation’s energy independence while supporting “cutting-edge, energy-intensive industries such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.”
Support for nuclear expansion isn’t limited to the political right. Center-left voices, including journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, co-authors of Abundance, have argued that reducing regulatory barriers for clean energy, including nuclear, is essential for addressing climate change. In 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom saved the state’s last nuclear power plant from its scheduled closure in 2025.
These new findings put these policies into question.
Researchers analyzed nuclear power plant operations and cancer mortality between 2000 and 2018 using advanced statistical modeling. They combined plant location and operation date data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration with county-level cancer mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Their models accounted for a wide range of variables including income, race, body mass index, smoking prevalence, and proximity to hospitals. Even after adjusting for these factors, counties closer to nuclear plants experienced higher cancer mortality rates.
The researchers estimate that roughly 115,000 cancer deaths in the U.S., about 6,400 per year, were associated with proximity to nuclear power plants.
Still, the researchers emphasize the findings do not establish causation and additional research is needed to better understand how people might be exposed, how long it could take for health effects to appear, and whether certain types of cancers are more likely than others.
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