Apr 28 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Brent Burkey York Daily Record, Pa.



Citing the 20 years since the last comprehensive national study of its kind, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting a new study on the potential health effects on those living near nuclear power plants, including Three Mile Island.

The request is to the National Academy of Sciences, which performed the last study. Its findings were published in 1990.

Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC, said the time lapse is one reason for the request at this time. He also said that the question of possible health effects comes up frequently at public meetings.

And, the previous study published about 20 years ago, which did not find significant health effects, broke down data on the county level to look for patterns, Sheehan said.

 Database technology has developed since that time to allow for smaller breakdowns, which could find clusters of health problems the previous study would not have caught, he said.

Potential health effects from individual plants could be spread out in multiple counties in many cases.

For example, Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, the two nuclear power plants in or around York County, have emergency response areas in multiple counties, Sheehan said.

Also, the study will look at cancer cases, not just deaths.

The study as requested will be on health effects around all nuclear power plants, and is not tied to specific installations or incidents, including the incident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

"It's an appropriate time now," Sheehan said. "It's been two decades since this kind of national study."

Jennifer Walsh, spokeswoman for the National Academy of Sciences, said the NRC made its request Monday at a meeting of the National Radiation Studies Board, an academy division.

She said the new study would look at cancer risk around nuclear facilities nationwide, not just nuclear power plants.

The planned start time for the study would be this summer, although planners still must set the scope of the study, a budget and a timeline.

Walsh also said it is too early to tell whether the study would send researchers into individual communities or whether it would rely for the most part on databases of previously compiled statistics.

 

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