Cancer danger discovered at N-waste plant

Fears over the safety of nuclear power in Britain have been revived by research which shows that children who regularly play on a beach near La Hague nuclear reprocessing plant in Normandy are at greater risk of contracting leukaemia.

Children who visited beaches near the plant at least once a month showed almost a three-fold increase in the risk of developing the disease, French scientists found. Eating local seafood at least once a week was associated with a similarly increased risk of leukaemia. The children of mothers who regularly visited the beaches were also more likely to have the disease, says a report in the British Medical Journal.