Cancer risk associations studies are not normally described as "proving" anything. The article being criticized uses 'risk' and 'association'. There is a long history of argument around these sorts of studies, there was a previous series of these around people living near power plants (where it seems like SES, not plant proximity, was the strongest explanatory variable, see <a href="https://www.aps.org/archives/publications/apsnews/200710/electromagneticfields.cfm" rel="nofollow">https://www.aps.org/archives/publications/apsnews/200710/ele... ). I've seen similar "living near a freeway causes cancer" arguments. There was a massive court case by flight attendants, who have a higher rate of cancer than the regular population.
In reading the criticism, I noticed the authors keep using the term "prove" and they also keep trying to come up with mechanisms ("refueling of the plant"). Even the argument about plant worker exposure compared to people living far away doesn't completely work, because the plant workers are taking all sorts of precautions to minimize exposure to radiation, but there are still mechanisms where something could go out the cooling stacks and deliver something harmful downwind.
The biophysics of cancer causation is entirely nontrivial and looking for the actual sources of the cancer risk is challenging, and watching physics people argue with epidemiologists gets old quickly (my field is biophysics, and I've had a few physics people insist that non-ionizing radiation couldn't possibly cause cancer, "because it doesn't damage DNA". Unfortunately, that argument isn't good, because it presupposes a mechanism (DNA damage due to radiation); we know now that non-ionizing radiation causes cellular heating, stress response, and more, which are all associated (based mostly on in vitro studies) with increased rate of cancer.
Note the authors (and the institute they work for) have vested interest: Dr. Adam Stein is the Director of the Nuclear Energy Innovation program at the Breakthrough Institute, where his work centers on the technology, regulation, economics, and risk governance of advanced nuclear energy.
Deric Tilson is a Senior Nuclear Energy Innovation Analyst at The Breakthrough Institute, where he focuses on advancing nuclear energy as a critical pathway to a carbon-free and energy-abundant future.
> where something could go out the cooling stacks and deliver something harmful downwind.
This is beyond ridiculous. EVERYTHING in nuclear power plants, that can feasibly be a vector for a radiation leak, is heavily monitored. And radiation leaks into the coolant loops is the most obvious thing.
> we know now that non-ionizing radiation causes cellular heating
At levels that are not achievable outside a microwave.
Where did I say that? What came out the cooling stack was radioactive? You're presuming a mechanism. My whole point here is that the original paper just described an association. We don't know what the cause of that was or if the authors even did a competent study.
The thing is that we can _measure_ radiation levels around nuclear power plants, with precision levels that are bordering on insane.
And the upper limits of possible exposures for the general public are well within the natural variability of the background levels. A person in Boulder, CO would receive more irradiation just due to higher levels of the cosmic rays than a person living next to Nine Mile Point power plant in NY.
So any possible cancers have to be caused by something else, and not by radiation exposure.
dekhn · · focus · HN ↗
In reading the criticism, I noticed the authors keep using the term "prove" and they also keep trying to come up with mechanisms ("refueling of the plant"). Even the argument about plant worker exposure compared to people living far away doesn't completely work, because the plant workers are taking all sorts of precautions to minimize exposure to radiation, but there are still mechanisms where something could go out the cooling stacks and deliver something harmful downwind.
The biophysics of cancer causation is entirely nontrivial and looking for the actual sources of the cancer risk is challenging, and watching physics people argue with epidemiologists gets old quickly (my field is biophysics, and I've had a few physics people insist that non-ionizing radiation couldn't possibly cause cancer, "because it doesn't damage DNA". Unfortunately, that argument isn't good, because it presupposes a mechanism (DNA damage due to radiation); we know now that non-ionizing radiation causes cellular heating, stress response, and more, which are all associated (based mostly on in vitro studies) with increased rate of cancer.
Note the authors (and the institute they work for) have vested interest: Dr. Adam Stein is the Director of the Nuclear Energy Innovation program at the Breakthrough Institute, where his work centers on the technology, regulation, economics, and risk governance of advanced nuclear energy.
Deric Tilson is a Senior Nuclear Energy Innovation Analyst at The Breakthrough Institute, where he focuses on advancing nuclear energy as a critical pathway to a carbon-free and energy-abundant future.
cyberax · · focus · HN ↗
No, there aren't.
> where something could go out the cooling stacks and deliver something harmful downwind.
This is beyond ridiculous. EVERYTHING in nuclear power plants, that can feasibly be a vector for a radiation leak, is heavily monitored. And radiation leaks into the coolant loops is the most obvious thing.
> we know now that non-ionizing radiation causes cellular heating
At levels that are not achievable outside a microwave.
dekhn · · focus · HN ↗
cyberax · · focus · HN ↗
And the upper limits of possible exposures for the general public are well within the natural variability of the background levels. A person in Boulder, CO would receive more irradiation just due to higher levels of the cosmic rays than a person living next to Nine Mile Point power plant in NY.
So any possible cancers have to be caused by something else, and not by radiation exposure.
dekhn · · focus · HN ↗