More than 1,000 additional people are dying each year from air pollution due to Germany’s phase out of nuclear power in response to the 2011 Fukushima disaster, according to a new study.

Those deaths are attributable to coal-fired power predominantly replacing shuttered nuclear power plants in Germany, driving around a 12% increase in local air pollution. That rise in pollution alone bears a price tag of $8.7 billion per year, more than 70% of the phaseout’s total annual costs of $12.2 billion, economists at the University of California at Santa Barbara, University of California at Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon University determined in a paper circulated Monday by the National Bureau for Economic Research.

Recommended Stories

With coal, the problem isn’t just climate change — it’s also pollution

‘Green New Deal’ rollout creates confusion about role of nuclear power, fossil fuels

Left-wing activists demand Democrats exclude nuclear and carbon capture from climate bill