Data was gathered of childhood cancers near the base

It follows a report showing there is categorically no evidence that living near nuclear power facilities increases the rate of childhood cancers.

The Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment found more Rosyth cases than expected but said it did not represent an increased risk.

The data will now be compared with previous work showing no cluster.

The UK report looked at 32,000 childhood cancer cases from 1969-93 in the UK.

It does seem to reflect the fact that in the area of Lothian and Fife solid tumours are slightly increased in incidence compared with the rest of the British Isles Professor Bryn Bridges COMARE

Overall, children living within a 25k radius of a site were no more likely to get cancer than those living elsewhere.

However, there was a cluster of cases close to the Rosyth nuclear dockyard.

The authors said there were many possible explanations and have called for more research.

The latest research is the largest study so far looking at the cancer risk posed, if any, by power stations.

Professor Bryn Bridges, chairman of COMARE, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "Rosyth is something which we haven't quite resolved.

"There is no evidence that there is a significant excess of any leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma around Rosyth.

"But the ones that are there tend to aggregate a closer to the Rosyth dockyard than they do a little further away, so we're not absolutely sure whether this is a real affect or not.

"A previous group that looked at Rosyth didn't find it in 1996, so we've asked that group to get together with our group to try to sort out why we get a slightly different result.

"But both groups are agreed that there isn't really any increased risk of leukaemia near Rosyth.

"There is a slight increase in other tumours, what we call solid tumours - it's not very big and it does seem to reflect the fact that in the area of Lothian and Fife solid tumours are slightly increased in incidence compared with the rest of the British Isles.