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Do nuclear plants boost leukaemia risk
News in perspective
TH FOTO-WERBUNG/SPL
Upfront– NUKE-PLANT LEUKAEMIA LINK? Are children under 5 years old who live near nuclear power plants in Germany more likely to develop leukaemia or not? The country’s powerful Green Party thinks so and has seized upon the results of a new study to renew its calls for the closure of all German nuclear facilities. Claudia Spix and her colleagues at the University of Mainz took another look at cancer statistics from 1980 to 2003, held in the German Childhood Cancer Registry at Mainz. First time around they had found a suggestion in the German cancer statistics of extra cases of childhood leukaemia near nuclear plants, but the effects did not appear to be constant over time. This time they found that children under 5 years old who live within 5 kilometres of any of Germany’s
16 nuclear plants had a 50 per cent increased risk of developing leukaemia. The team suggests this could add up to 29 excess cases of the cancer over the 24 years examined (European Journal of Cancer, vol 44, p 275). As the known radioactive emissions of Germany’s nuclear plants should be too low to cause cancer, Spix and her colleagues say it may be due to some other factor. However, they dismiss an idea floated in the UK that viruses brought in by migrant workers might be to blame. US and UK studies have also explored associations between nuclear power and leukaemia. In the UK, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment found excess cancers within 25 kilometres of nuclear plants.
Deserted orchid
for any exchange of orchids, even between research labs. “Botanists are giving up on orchid research because it is so difficult to get access,” says David Roberts of the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. On 6 February, he is publishing a study showing that orchid collection from Brazil and Costa Rica – key orchid habitats – has fallen since CITES came into force in 1975, while collection of unlisted plants has soared (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/ rspb.2007.1683). “Many orchid species which face extinction are going unstudied because of red tape,” agrees Pat Raven of the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
–Under suspicion, as ever–
IT WAS one of the Bush administration’s biggest and boldest efforts to develop clean energy, and had backing from both industry and foreign governments. Now it appears doomed. On 30 January, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced it would not complete payment of its promised contribution of around $1.3 billion towards the FutureGen project, a coal power plant designed to use carbon capture and storage to cut emissions almost to zero. This was despite pledges to pay the
“FutureGen was closer to coming on stream than any other large-scale testbeds” remaining $500 million of the plant’s total bill from a group of energy companies called the FutureGen Alliance and governments in China, India, South Korea, Australia and Japan. Energy secretary Samuel Bodman blames the decision on escalating costs, which the DOE estimates have doubled since the project was proposed in 2003. In its place he is proposing to share 6 | NewScientist | 9 February 2008
$156 million in 2009 between several smaller capture and storage projects at various power plants across the US, and to give more control to the private sector. Spreading cash around smaller commercial projects appears at first glance to be in line with the wishes of some scientists. In March 2007, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a report calling for multiple carbon capture and storage demonstration sites, controlled mainly by industry rather than government. However, one of the report’s co-authors, Ernest Moniz, points out that FutureGen was closer to coming on stream than any other large-scale testbeds for carbon capture and storage, and he says that closing it down has set back progress by three to five years. “If we are serious about providing the option of coal use in a carbon constrained world, then we should be serious about getting these plants up and running,” Moniz says. “We need to do it with some urgency.” Bart Gordon of the US House Committee on Science and Technology says the DOE acted too hastily. “Major initiatives should not be launched or cancelled on a whim,” he says.
PITY the poor orchids. The very laws designed to protect these rare plants are threatening their future by making it more difficult for researchers to study them. Botanists are calling for reform of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which blocks the exchange of specimens between herbariums around the world. They claim CITES’s purpose is being undermined by red tape. All orchids are listed under CITES as protected species. The rules are designed to stop them being plundered, and require a complex paper trail to be set up REUTERS/REUTERS TV
Coal funds cut
Iran in space IT SEEMS cutting a ribbon was never an option. On Monday, Iran fired a rocket into space to mark the opening of its space centre, provoking a variety of opinions on the country’s military threat. According to Iranian state media, the rocket will be followed by the launch of a research satellite named Omid (meaning “hope”) in March 2009. But the move has renewed fears that Iran may be able to launch intercontinental –Show of strength?– missiles. “If a country has the www.newscientist.com
TH FOTO-WERBUNG/SPL
Upfront– NUKE-PLANT LEUKAEMIA LINK? Are children under 5 years old who live near nuclear power plants in Germany more likely to develop leukaemia or not? The country’s powerful Green Party thinks so and has seized upon the results of a new study to renew its calls for the closure of all German nuclear facilities. Claudia Spix and her colleagues at the University of Mainz took another look at cancer statistics from 1980 to 2003, held in the German Childhood Cancer Registry at Mainz. First time around they had found a suggestion in the German cancer statistics of extra cases of childhood leukaemia near nuclear plants, but the effects did not appear to be constant over time. This time they found that children under 5 years old who live within 5 kilometres of any of Germany’s
16 nuclear plants had a 50 per cent increased risk of developing leukaemia. The team suggests this could add up to 29 excess cases of the cancer over the 24 years examined (European Journal of Cancer, vol 44, p 275). As the known radioactive emissions of Germany’s nuclear plants should be too low to cause cancer, Spix and her colleagues say it may be due to some other factor. However, they dismiss an idea floated in the UK that viruses brought in by migrant workers might be to blame. US and UK studies have also explored associations between nuclear power and leukaemia. In the UK, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment found excess cancers within 25 kilometres of nuclear plants.
Deserted orchid
for any exchange of orchids, even between research labs. “Botanists are giving up on orchid research because it is so difficult to get access,” says David Roberts of the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. On 6 February, he is publishing a study showing that orchid collection from Brazil and Costa Rica – key orchid habitats – has fallen since CITES came into force in 1975, while collection of unlisted plants has soared (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/ rspb.2007.1683). “Many orchid species which face extinction are going unstudied because of red tape,” agrees Pat Raven of the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
–Under suspicion, as ever–
IT WAS one of the Bush administration’s biggest and boldest efforts to develop clean energy, and had backing from both industry and foreign governments. Now it appears doomed. On 30 January, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced it would not complete payment of its promised contribution of around $1.3 billion towards the FutureGen project, a coal power plant designed to use carbon capture and storage to cut emissions almost to zero. This was despite pledges to pay the
“FutureGen was closer to coming on stream than any other large-scale testbeds” remaining $500 million of the plant’s total bill from a group of energy companies called the FutureGen Alliance and governments in China, India, South Korea, Australia and Japan. Energy secretary Samuel Bodman blames the decision on escalating costs, which the DOE estimates have doubled since the project was proposed in 2003. In its place he is proposing to share 6 | NewScientist | 9 February 2008
$156 million in 2009 between several smaller capture and storage projects at various power plants across the US, and to give more control to the private sector. Spreading cash around smaller commercial projects appears at first glance to be in line with the wishes of some scientists. In March 2007, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a report calling for multiple carbon capture and storage demonstration sites, controlled mainly by industry rather than government. However, one of the report’s co-authors, Ernest Moniz, points out that FutureGen was closer to coming on stream than any other large-scale testbeds for carbon capture and storage, and he says that closing it down has set back progress by three to five years. “If we are serious about providing the option of coal use in a carbon constrained world, then we should be serious about getting these plants up and running,” Moniz says. “We need to do it with some urgency.” Bart Gordon of the US House Committee on Science and Technology says the DOE acted too hastily. “Major initiatives should not be launched or cancelled on a whim,” he says.
PITY the poor orchids. The very laws designed to protect these rare plants are threatening their future by making it more difficult for researchers to study them. Botanists are calling for reform of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which blocks the exchange of specimens between herbariums around the world. They claim CITES’s purpose is being undermined by red tape. All orchids are listed under CITES as protected species. The rules are designed to stop them being plundered, and require a complex paper trail to be set up REUTERS/REUTERS TV
Coal funds cut
Iran in space IT SEEMS cutting a ribbon was never an option. On Monday, Iran fired a rocket into space to mark the opening of its space centre, provoking a variety of opinions on the country’s military threat. According to Iranian state media, the rocket will be followed by the launch of a research satellite named Omid (meaning “hope”) in March 2009. But the move has renewed fears that Iran may be able to launch intercontinental –Show of strength?– missiles. “If a country has the www.newscientist.com