• Posted February 24, 2026

Living Near Nuclear Plants Linked to Higher Cancer Death Risk

The closer you live to a nuclear power plant, the higher the odds that you’ll die from cancer, a new nationwide study has concluded.

People living near a nuclear plant have a cancer death risk that rises with age, peaking in the senior years for both women and men, researchers reported Feb. 23 in the journal Nature Communications.

The risk is highest for those living within a few miles of a nuclear plant, and sharply decreases the farther a person resides from such a facility, researchers found.

“Our study suggests that living near a nuclear power plant may carry a measurable cancer risk — one that lessens with distance,” senior researcher Petros Koutrakis said in a news release. He’s a professor of environmental health and human habitation at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

This study is the first to be conducted in the 21st century that analyzes cancer risk for every nuclear power plant in the United States, researchers said.

For the study, researchers analyzed county-level cancer death data from 2000 to 2018, looking at whether these deaths occurred within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of a nuclear plant.

The analysis used advanced statistical modeling that captured the cumulative impact of all nearby nuclear power plants, rather than just one.

U.S. counties located closer to nuclear power plants experienced higher cancer death rates, even after researchers accounted for other potential explanations.

About 6,400 cancer deaths a year could be attributed to living near a nuclear plant, with a total of roughly 115,000 deaths across the entire study period, researchers found.

The 65-to-74 age group had the most deaths, with an estimated 13,976 among women and 20,912 among men, results showed.

However, researchers noted that their study does not prove a direct cause-and-effect link between nuclear plants and cancer risk, only that there is an association.

For example, the method they used tracked only proximity to nuclear plants, and did not incorporate direct radiation measurements from the plants.

These results indicate more investigation needs to be done on the risks of nuclear power, researchers concluded.

“We recommend that more studies be done that address the issue of nuclear power plants and health impacts, particularly at a time when nuclear power is being promoted as a clean solution to climate change,” Koutrakis said.

More information

The National Cancer Institute has more on radiation and cancer risk.

SOURCES: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, news release, Feb. 23, 2026; Nature Communications, Feb. 23, 2026