The federal government is stepping up preparations for what it characterizes as "the unlikely event of a severe nuclear power plant accident," according to a contracting document dated July 18 that The Peacock Report has located. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) intends to distribute millions of doses of potassium iodide (KI) to communities within 10 miles of commercial nuclear facilities.
The stockpiling of KI tablets is an ongoing process that began in 2001, when the NRC revised emergency preparedeness regulations governing state-led evacuation and sheltering plans. The latest measure will help to replenish those stockpiles. When the commission revised its rules, it claimed that KI tablets
if taken in time, blocks the thyroid gland's uptake of radioactive iodine and thus would help prevent thyroid cancers and other thyroid diseases that might be caused by exposure to radioactive iodine that could be dispersed in a severe nuclear accident.
The Commission has found that potassium iodide is a reasonable, prudent and inexpensive supplement to evacuation and sheltering for specific local conditions. The Commission left it to the states to make a final decision on whether to use it in their emergency preparedness program, but decided to fund the initial purchases of potassium iodide for any state that decided to stockpile it.
The current procurement is for about 2.5 million 65-mg doses of KI. That number is an estimate only, as the exact amount could be higher or lower, depending upon demand, the document said.
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