By Professor John Robertson OBA

A map of the nuclear power plants in Eastern Canada. The city of Toronto (2.79 million) is contiguous with Pickering.

Yesterday, from the local Durham Region Health Department:

“Ensuring that our community is prepared for any emergency is our top priority,” says Anthony DiPietro, Director, Health Protection with Durham Region Health Department. “Having a supply of KI tablets on hand is a simple yet effective measure to protect your health in the highly unlikely event of a nuclear accident. We encourage all residents within the designated area to take advantage of this free resource.” https://www.durham.ca/en/news/ki-tablets-jan-21-2025.aspx

Meanwhile in the UK:

Just as Labour Government announces extension of 46 crack Torness nuclear power station to keep lights in London on, new research suggests cancer mortality risk is greater and quicker to develop than current estimates

As a response to evidence that the UK [England] will need nuclear to meet its ‘Clean power by 2030‘ target¹, the Torness plant in Scotland, where 46 cracks have recently been identified in the ageing reactor², is to be kept in service until 2030.

Coincidentally, my alert on this topic today revealed, from the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (originally published 2 September 2024):

The scientists estimated that the mortality rate due to leukaemia increased by more than 250% per gray (Gy) of exposure (excess relative rate [ERR] per Gy, 2.68; 90% confidence interval, 1.13–4.55) and found the excess rate to be reasonably described by a linear dose–response model.³

British Medical Journal analysis offered this disturbing comment:

This major update to INWORKS provides a direct estimate of the association between protracted low dose exposure to ionising radiation and solid cancer mortality based on some of the world’s most informative cohorts of radiation workers. The summary estimate of excess relative rate solid cancer mortality per Gy is larger than estimates currently informing radiation protection, and some evidence suggests a steeper slope for the dose-response association in the low dose range than over the full dose range. ⁴

Put plainly, these finding suggest that there is a significant risk of cancer mortality for those exposed to radiation leaking from nuclear facilities, that it has been previously under-estimated and that it happens quickly to those who have only been exposed to a lower dose in the early years of that exposure.

Sources:

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c33dvekx021o
2. https://nuclear-news.net/2024/07/24/3-b1-safety-warnings-as-cracks-rise-at-torness-nuclear-plant/
3. https://www.iarc.who.int/news-events/leukaemia-lymphoma-and-multiple-myeloma-mortality-after-low-level-exposure-to-ionising-radiation-in-nuclear-workers-inworks/#:~:text=The%20scientists%20estimated%20that%20the,a%20linear%20dose%E2%80%93response%20model.
4. https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-074520