nuclear-news

Now, lawmakers and public advocates are once again urging action, citing Tuesday’s earthquake in Virginia and the much larger temblor last March in Japan as evidence that more needs to be done because, in each case, nuclear reactors temporarily lost grid power, a condition that poses the threat of radiation release if reactors overheat and can’t be sufficiently cooled……

U.S. law requires the president to authorize the distribution of pills to people living within 20 miles of reactors to protect them against a type of cancer caused by radiation exposure. The pills—containing inexpensive potassium iodide, which is the substance used to iodize common table salt—can prevent thyroid cancer by saturating the thyroid gland with a harmless type of iodine, keeping it from absorbing radioactive iodine that might be inhaled or ingested after a radiation release. Each 65mg pill provides about a day’s worth of protection.

The law never was implemented because the Bush administration, in early 2008, used a waiver in the law that allowed the president to skip the distribution in an extended area beyond an existing 10-mile emergency planning zone if a “more effective prophylaxis or preventive measures” was identified.

John Marburger, Mr. Bush’s science advisor, who died last month of complications from lymphoma, exercised the exemption by ruling then that “avoidance of exposure altogether” was a better prophylaxis than potassium iodide. He said avoidance could be accomplished “through evacuation” and “interdiction of contaminated food.”

Thus, the executive branch action, in effect, “wiped the law from the books,” said Peter Crane, a retired attorney in Seattle who worked at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and strongly supports the law’s implementation. He and others, including Rep. Edward Markey (D., Mass.), author of the provision in the 2002 act, now are urging the Obama administration and the NRC to take another look at the issue.

Advocates of the law cite evidence showing that many Japanese citizens, including hundreds of children, were exposed to radiation in March…

, in Fukushima prefecture, where the crippled reactors are located, some 1.51 million potassium iodide pills were distributed, enough to dose 750,000 people living within 30 miles, or 50 kilometers , of the plant. Many of those living closest to the plant already had left the area by the time pills were made available, Japanese officials said last week.

Mr. Markey said this week that the accident in Japan underscores the need to provide pills as a “common-sense measure” to people living within 20 miles of reactors “in recognition of the probability that rapid evacuation during a nuclear meltdown may be difficult and time-consuming.”….

NRC officials say they do not favor expanded distribution because there’s a misconception about potassium iodide’s powers and a fear people might delay in heeding evacuation orders, if they have pills. “It doesn’t protect against damage to organs other than the thyroid,” said Patricia Milligan, a certified health physicist in the NRC’s division of preparedness and response. “It’s not an anti-radiation pill, as some people seem to think”