Fukushima meltdown unlikely to lead to large number of cancers - U.N. scientists

VIENNA (Reuters) - Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown in March 2011 is unlikely to lead to a large number of people developing thyroid and other cancers like after Chernobyl in 1986, U.N. scientists said on Wednesday.

While some children - fewer than a thousand - might have received radiation doses that in theory could increase the risk of thyroid cancer, the probability of that developing also remains low, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) said in a new study.