Nukes ‘n’ kids don’t mix

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Nuclear reactors are perfectly safe and don’t have any effect on the health of people living nearby. Right. Closing a reactor, on the other hand, is another story. According to INTERPRESS SERVICE, a study released last month shows a sudden decrease in infant death rates in counties near to and downwind from five reactors in the United States in the first two years after the reactors closed.

There was a similar drop in newly diagnosed cases of leukemia and cancer in children under five years in the four-county area downwind from Rancho Seco reactor, near Sacramento. In the neighborhood of one reactor in Michigan the infant mortality decrease after the reactor’s close was 54.1 percent.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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