Switch from nuclear to coal-fired power linked to low birth weight in US region

Study reveals fall in birth weight in areas of the Tennessee Valley which had greatest boom in coal-fired power plant activity following nuclear closures

Children in a region of the US were born smaller after the area switched from nuclear plants to coal-fired power stations, new research has found.

The study looked at of the impact of nuclear power plant closures in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979 - the most serious such accident in US history - in which one of the power station's reactors underwent a partial meltdown.