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American Nuclear Society responds to deeply flawed study on nuclear plant proximity
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Nuclear Society (ANS), a nonprofit representing over 12,000 professionals in the fields of nuclear science and technology, issues the following response to "National Analysis of Cancer Mortality and Proximity to Nuclear Power Plants in the United States," by Yazan Alwadi, Petros Koutrakis, et al., published February 23, 2026, in Nature Communications (doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-69285-4):
Experts with ANS, including health physicists and radiation protection specialists, have reviewed the study published in Nature Communications purporting to show associations between residential proximity to nuclear power plants and elevated cancer mortality rates across U.S. counties from 2000 to 2018. This study contains fundamental methodological shortcomings, acknowledged by the authors themselves, that prevent it from supporting any credible scientific conclusions.
The Bottom Line:
This flawed ecological study does not advance our understanding of radiological risk. The authors themselves state that their findings "cannot establish causality" and that their study "does not include dosimetry," admissions that undermine the study's central premise and that ANS urges journalists and policymakers to weigh carefully.
Christian M. Petrie, Joseph Burns, Robert Morris, Kurt Terrani (ORNL)
Transactions | Volume 118 | Number 1 | June 2018 | Pages 1476-1479
