Dr Chris Busby, ECRR scientific secretary and one of the report’s authors, says he fears the US might consider using tactical nuclear arms in a conflict.

This, he predicts, would have “terrible consequences for soldiers and civilians both in the area of use and, as Chernobyl has taught, much further away”.

The 200-page report, due to be unveiled today at the European Parliament, contains the findings of a five-year study by 46 scientists into the possible health effects of radiation exposure from weapons fallout, military use of depleted uranium and accidents at nuclear power plants.

Its authors also include Alexey Yablokov, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Inge Schmitze Feuerhake, of the University of Bremen.

The report states that between 1945 and 1989 more than 50 million people have died, or are dying, as a result of contamination from radioative releases.

Busby, who is a member of the UK government’s Radiation Risk Committee, blames the use of depleted uranium munitions in the 1991 Gulf War for causing a surge in cancer rates, particularly among Iraqi children. Allied forces admitted firing hundreds of shells tipped with depleted uranium in the war but deny they are responsible for causing cancer.

Similar munitions were also a feature of the conflict in Bosnia and Kosovo, where illness rates among Allied soldiers soared by 18%, according to Busby.

“The message we want to get across is that you simply cannot afford to use depleted uranium. To do risks devastating effects for the human race,” he argues. The report also calls for nuclear power to be “severely” curtailed to ensure radiation is kept “as low as is reasonably achievable”.

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