Those Living Near Nuclear Plants To Get Pills

WWJ Newsradio 950

Officials will provide free anti-radiation pills to people who live or work within 10 miles of Michigan's nuclear power plants. The potassium iodide pills can partially protect the thyroid gland from radiation exposure if there is a nuclear accident.

The Monroe Evening News reports homes and businesses will get an explanatory flier the week of Sept. 21 that includes a voucher redeemable for a supply of the nonprescription pills after Oct. 1.

Previously in Michigan, such pills were to be distributed following an accident.

The state has three nuclear plants: Fermi 2 near Newport, the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Van Buren County's Covert Township and the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant in Berrien County's Lake Township.

What has brought this on?

Sure is a lot of "We're doing this just in case" moments happening all over the country. I wonder if they are worried about an attack on their Nuclear facilities.

Pennsylvania as well. Let's keep our eyes open and see if there's a pattern here.

www.pennlive.com...

Great idea. So in case something serious does happen, people who will die of dozens of different cancers/illnesses in the following years would know that their thyroid gland is in perfect condition.
Why spread panic? Also those pills must have an expiry date. ?

[edit on 9-9-2009 by ZeroKnowledge]

Looks like it might be happening nationwide - Story Here!

Originally posted by theyreadmymind
Pennsylvania as well. Let's keep our eyes open and see if there's a pattern here.

www.pennlive.com...

According to this site, the iodide pills in PA are being distributed because:

The KI tablets that were distributed previously by the commonwealth will expire on Aug. 31 and should be discarded in the trash. The pills should not be used after the expiration date

Originally posted by kozmo
Looks like it might be happening nationwide - Story Here!

The article in that site is dated from 2002. Not exactly recently....
Sorry, just wanted to point that out.

[edit on 9/9/2009 by abecedarian]

Originally posted by Tentickles


What has brought this on?

They live next to nuclear power plants.

Second line for rhetorical astuteness.

What on earth is an anti-radiation pill?

Do they work?

[edit on 9-9-2009 by VitalOverdose]

Originally posted by VitalOverdose
What on earth is an anti-radiation pill?

Do they work?

[edit on 9-9-2009 by VitalOverdose]

An anti-radiation pill is a pill that works contrary to the presence of radiation, in the sense that it negates radiation. They work, in theory.

I was going to say...as far as I know, this has been going on for decades, at least in the community where my relatives live near a NPP.

The "pills" are probably potassium iodide, to prevent the thyroid from being affected by radiation.

Even if this is just routine, I think anyone living in these areas should take advantage of the offer. Especially in light of some of the recent threads on here. Not to be a fearmonger but better safe than sorry.

More nuclear power fear mongering. You're 1000 times safer living near a nuclear powerplant than you are living near a coal power plant. Coal realeases thousands of tons of radioactive materials a year (yes, even the so called "clean" plants). There have been a tiny handful of radiation releases from nuclear plants in many years of operation, only one or two in the US.

reply to post by pluckynoonez


Come on plucky... you're kidding, right? Some people here may not get your sense of humor.

One of the most organically active isotopes present after a nuclear 'incident' is iodine-131 which is rapidly taken up by the thyroid gland. The 'nuke pills' are postassium iodide. The idea is that you take the pills which saturate your thyroid with safe iodide and leave no room for the take-up of radioactive iodine.

This is not new...

I lived back East in Point Lepreau, New Brunswick, Canada..
& we had these small red radiation prevention pills.

I think we got them back in 94'

I live just about 5 miles out of the range for the pill. But it is odd that my doctor has my thyroid checked at least once a year. I was told from a toxin screen test that I've been exposed to higher than normal levels of radiation during my life. I believe I've even been warned about having x-rays.

I drive by the power plant at least once a month and it usually makes me a little nervous.

Not new here either. MY mother lived right down the road from Ginna and they passed those pills out to them before she moved. She has now been in Florida for five years. She always laughed at how dumb that was, if the thing were to blow she would have been incinerated immediately, it would take about 5 minutes for us in the city to be gone. LOL I think it is a false sense of security really.

I live about 1/2 way between Cook and Palasdes and have mayn of the workers renting from me. They are great places to work if you like working long hours. The average pay is over 100k$. When I interviewed the guy told me the radiation was less in the control room than the normal background outdoors but they do have hot areas where work times are limited to a few hours a week. I haven't seen the pills and I've been here 5 years but every year they send a calander with insructions on what to do if there's an event.

Lets face facts here.. the only reason nuclear power plants operate at all is so the governments can use the waste to make nuclear bombs.

Its a clear demonstration of whats more important the weapons or the people they are suppose to protect.


[edit on 9-9-2009 by VitalOverdose]

reply to post by redhead57

Back in the early-mid 80s I worked at the nuclear plant around here. I have actually physically seen the reactor (not operating of course).

It is physically impossible for a nuclear reactor to explode like a nuclear bomb. In the first place, the fuel used is nowhere near as concentrated as that required to produce a nuclear blast. In the second place, the fuel is never thrust together into a 'critical mass'; it is simply rods which are inserted into the reactor so the neutrons released from one can trigger neutron release in the others, and so on and so on and so on. Coolant containing boron is used to absorb neutrons to keep the fire burning slow, so to speak.

The only concern about a nuclear plant is a meltdown or radiation release. The water inside the reactor is seriously 'live' (radioactive) and therefore operates in an enclosed loop inside the reactor chamber, isolated by two barriers (the primary and secondary containment walls, both several feet thick of concrete). The heat, which is what the plant actually produces from nuclear fuel, is transferred by two heat exchangers before making it to the turbines and generators.

If an explosion were to occur (using traditional explosives) inside the reactor building, the primary and secondary containment walls could be breached. This could allow radioactive water and air to leak out of the reactor building into the surrounding environment. It would not set off a nuclear explosion, but it could poison the environment. Also, if the system were to, for some reason, not cool itself properly, it is theoretically possible for the reactor to reach a temperature that would literally melt the entire building and the ground underneath it in an uncontrolled reaction. Obviously, that would be a bad thing.

But it can't turn into an A-bomb.

TheRedneck

reply to post by VitalOverdose

Lets face facts here.. the only reason nuclear power plants operate at all is is so the governments can use the waste to make nuclear bombs.

Another myth.

The fuel used in an A-bomb is the exact same thing used in a nuclear fuel rod, but purified to a greater extent. The nuclear waste is what's left after the uranium is used up, still hot (radioactive), but not with (much) uranium.

Imagine for a moment that you had a pond which naturally leaked 10% gasoline into the water in your back yard. Using that gasoline you could either build a generator that was gasoline powered, or a molotav cocktail. Now let's say you had a generator that could run just fine on 50% gasoline and 50% water, but that molotav cocktail needed 95% gasoline to burn right. Would you spend the energy to make 50% gasoline for your generator, just so you could get 5% gasoline out and spend more energy to make it 95% gasoline for the molotav cocktails?

No, you'd just use the pond for making molotav cocktails. the other way doesn't make any sense.

Nuclear waste could be used to make 'dirty' bombs, but those are nothing more than traditional bombs with some highly radioactive material around them as future shrapnel. No uranium required; polonium will do just as well. As far as I know, the US isn't making dirty bombs. We would prefer to make bigger bombs, instead (so it seems ).

TheRedneck