Friday June 18, 6:40 pm Eastern Time US proposes stockpiling radiation antidote By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed this week that potassium iodide be stockpiled to protect the public from a major release of radiation during a nuclear power plant accident.

If taken in time, the chemical helps prevent radioactive iodine from being lodged in the thyroid gland, where it could lead to thyroid cancer or other illness.

In a notice published on Tuesday in the federal register, the NRC said potassium iodide would be added to the list of measures to protect the public from a nuclear power plant accident. The only current safety steps are taking shelter or evacuation.

The NRC said it would prefer the Federal Emergency Management Agency pay for the stockpile, but if that agency will not, the NRC will purchase the potassium iodide for states upon request if Congress provides the money.

The Food and Drug Administration ruled in December 1978 that potassium iodide was safe and effective for thyroid protection during a nuclear accident.

The new policy was largely ignored until three months later on March 28, 1979, when the accident occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

At the time, federal and state officials immediately searched for supplies of potassium iodide, but none could be found. Almost overnight, the FDA arranged for the production of 250,000 doses of the iodide.

During the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor near Kiev, radioactive iodine was spewed over a wide area of Poland and what was then the Soviet Union.

Children in Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus, where potassium iodide was not widely distributed, are now experiencing high levels of thyroid cancer.

However, in Poland, where the iodide was administered to 97 percent of children, there has been no similar increase in thyroid cancer.

The NRC is taking public comment on its safety plan through Sept. 13.

-- Rickjohn (rickjohn1@yahoo.com), June 28, 1999

Answers

Thanks for reposting this. I just tried to find it via the URL I posted in my "Interesting Timeline of NRC activities" thread but the link has expired.

Note - I found lots of good information on the Anbex sites:

Safety

There are several other links on those pages you can read to find out more. They have NOT updated their pages to reflect the above article recommending STOCKPILING of KI however.

And ... this doesn't seem at all off topic. The NRC has seen fit to change a decades old policy - AT THIS TIME. Just a coincidence?

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 28, 1999.

Oops... lets try that again.

What Is It?

Who Needs It?,/a>

Safety

See also the links on History of usage, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 28, 1999.