A researcher looks at children, nuclear, cancer

Thyroid cancers among those young at the time of Fukushima are downplayed and denied in Japan

According to research of the available studies, Beyond Nuclear’s Cindy Folkers and Linda Pentz Gunter, in their published peer-reviewed article in the British Medical Journal Pediatrics Open, noted the disproportionate harm to children as a result of exposure to radiation all along the nuclear fuel chain. When looking at catastrophic releases of radioactivity, as in the case of the March 11, 2011 Fukushima-Daichi nuclear disaster in Japan, the authors noted: “Thyroid cancers among those exposed to Fukushima radiation as children have increased 20 times the expected rate, with about 80% metastasizing—indicating increased severity of the cancer and suggesting screening and surgery was necessary.”

On this week’s Nuclear Hotseat, host Libbe HaLevy asks Joseph Mangano, Executive Director of Radiation and Public Health Project, just how bad things are in Japan. And they take a look back at his more than 30 years of research on nuclear power and negative health outcomes, especially among children.

And in this week’s Hot Story, Linda Pentz Gunter takes a look at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey and how close it came to disaster given the recent major earthquake there. Will Turkey press on with the Russian reactors being built there?

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