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All Belgians To Be Given Iodine Pills In Case Of Nuclear Accident (phys.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the preventative-care dept.

mdsolar quotes a report from Phys.Org: Belgium is to provide iodine pills to its entire population of around 11 million people to protect against radioactivity in case of a nuclear accident, the health minister was quoted as saying Thursday. The move comes as Belgium faces growing pressure from neighboring Germany to shutter two ageing nuclear power plants near their border due to concerns over their safety. Iodine pills, which help reduce radiation build-up in the human thyroid gland, had previously only been given to people living within 20 kilometres (14 miles) of the Tihange and Doel nuclear plants. Health Minister Maggie De Block was quoted by La Libre Belgique newspaper as telling parliament that the range had now been expanded to 100 kilometers, effectively covering the whole country. The health ministry did not immediately respond to AFP when asked to comment. The head of Belgium's French-speaking Green party, Jean-Marc Nollet, backed the measures but added that "just because everyone will get these pills doesn't mean there is no longer any nuclear risk," La Libre reported. Belgium's creaking nuclear plants have been causing safety concerns for some time after a series of problems ranging from leaks to cracks and an unsolved sabotage incident. Yesterday, a nuclear plant in Germany was reportedly infected with a computer virus.

15 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. ISIS much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I highly doubt the failure of a Belgian nuclear plan will come as an accident. They're afraid of terrorist attacks on their nuclear plants, and are preparing by handing out iodine pills instead of eliminating the underlying threat.

    1. Re:ISIS much? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They're afraid of terrorist attacks on their nuclear plants, and are preparing by handing out iodine pills instead of eliminating the underlying threat.

      You can never completely eliminate all threats. The potassium iodide tablets are a cheap and effective precaution. I have a vial of KI that cost me $2. If they buy them in bulk, they could cost far less than that. They can probably do this for less than a euro per household. So why not?

    2. Re:ISIS much? by AchilleTalon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Being afraid of a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant is an unreasonable fear. A nuclear reactor isn't a nuclear bomb. Suppose they actually access the plant, how are they suppose to turn it into an actual cataclysmic event? The amount of logistic, knowledge and luck required to turn it into an actual threat is higher than many other alternatives. This fear of a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant is again largely exagerrated and fed by the anti-nuclear activists. They want the mass to perceive the nuclear plants as a perpetual, constant and actual threat against the human kind.

      --
      Achille Talon
      Hop!
    3. Re:ISIS much? by NotDrWho · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So to combat fear and ignorance, they're going to remain willfully ignorant of the very real problem they have with their immigrant Muslim population, because they're fearful of being labelled as racists if they point out the truth?

      Yeah, that makes sense.

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  2. Do not push this button by Iamthecheese · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Unless the pills come with a warning less than two sentences long in large print explaining WHY the instructions should be followed*, this will hurt more people than it will save. Some people won't trust advice like "do not take this except in the case of a nuclear accident." They'll take them for their cold. They'll take them to treat cancer. They'll take them to see it it gets them high. And if, God forbid, there is an accident some will take disastrously large doses leaving others without. You could publicly distribute clearly marked salt pills and expect 10 cases of salt overdose within the week.

    *and a huge public education effort as well

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
    1. Re:Do not push this button by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Most people get enough iodine from table salt, since here in the west we've been adding it to that since the 1920's when they figured out it was a fast, easy and cheap way of fixing the problem. It's only the people who don't use salt at all that are really at risk. My mother had iodine deficiency as a kid(grew up in east germany), nothing like decades of problems with it and it's such a simple problem to fix.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    2. Re:Do not push this button by dbIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ah, a link to a video as a reply - how postliterate of you!


      More seriously, one of my pet hates is links to videos without context but that's just me so I don't actually think less of you for it. I hate the trend for a long list of reasons, especially for those situations where someone tries to send me to an hour long TED talk when a single line comment about something I'm already aware of will do.
      I will follow that link some time later.


      Back on topic, I don't actually know how much damage the education funding cuts from Reagan onwards did but it looks like a hell of a lot. More typos in newspapers etc may just be due to staff cuts but the end result is hard to distinguish from idiocracy.

  3. Re:Both by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They might be unreliable in regards to uptime, but until now, there has never been a serious nuclear incident at any of them. Obviously, even the tiniest issue in any system even remotely related to those plants is being magnified and overexposed and used as a bad example why nuclear is bad.

    Nuclear is bad because of the bad politics that surround it and Belgium is no exception. Those plants should've been replaced by newer plants about 15 years ago.

  4. Re:Mutants! by Firethorn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But, radiation can have bad effects on you in more ways than messing up your thyroid!

    Most of the other radioactive elements don't bio-accumulate like iodine does. They also don't concentrate quite so easily. So the pills are to prevent you from picking the iodine while they get you out and perform the other necessary decontamination.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  5. Re:Stupid leftist commies by dave420 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Thousands of terrorists"? Are you really that scared? Or just massively ignorant? Either way you are not operating rationally, and seem woefully confused about reality.

  6. More anti-nuclear FUD from mdsolar... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    What a surprise!

  7. Re:But nuclear is magic by thegarbz · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Nothing's perfectly safe. But on the scale of safeness nuclear is headed and shoulders above most other forms of power generation which have both a higher headcount and higher environmental impact.

  8. Re:New world order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Do you know what energy source kills the most people, and causes the most cancers? Answer = THE SUN. Compared to nuclear, solar energy has killed multitudes more people. But we are not afraid to go out into the sun, and yet some folks quiver in fear at the prospect of low dose radiation from a nuclear plant, even and accident. Chernobyl pales in comparison to those killed by solar energy.

  9. Re:silly belgians... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    nope. you let a bunch of muslims in and they'll kill you.

  10. Re:60,000 excess cancer fatalities from Chernobyl by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You have such a nack for finding sources with great bias and no credibility. Of course, credibility isn't important when it comes to 'the cause'.