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County public health officials are offering free doses of the radiation-blocking drug potassium iodide to people who live and work downwind of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The pills, also known by their chemical name KI, are available at six locations. They are only to be taken at the direction of public health officials in the event of a radiation leak at Diablo Canyon. The county has enough doses to cover hundreds of thousands of people, said Michelle Shoresman, spokeswoman for the county public health department. They will be available as long as supplies last, which should be a year or so.

County public health officials are offering free doses of the radiation-blocking drug potassium iodide to people who live and work downwind of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The pills, also known by their chemical name KI, are available at six locations. They are only to be taken at the direction of public health officials in the event of a radiation leak at Diablo Canyon. The county has enough doses to cover hundreds of thousands of people, said Michelle Shoresman, spokeswoman for the county public health department. They will be available as long as supplies last, which should be a year or so.

The NRC has approved a staff recommendation to continue providing potassium iodide (KI) to states requesting it for residents who live within the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone of a commercial nuclear power plant. The NRC had originally authorized only a one-time distribution to states requesting the product. KI can help reduce the risk of thyroid cancer and other diseases by blocking the thyroid gland's absorption of radioactive iodine, which could be dispersed in the unlikely event of a severe reactor accident. KI can be used as part of a state's emergency preparedness program, in addition to evacuations and/or sheltering-in-place for the population closest to the nuclear power plant and thus at greatest risk of exposure to radioactive materials released during an accident.

Jason Kish's November 21 letter misses the point I made about Potassium Iodide (KI) pills. I wasn't referring to the effectiveness of KI pills protecting the thyroid gland from a concentration of radioactive iodine released in a nuclear plant disaster. The myth I referred to is the false assumption made by many that KI pills are the magic protector in the event of an accident or terrorist attack at Limerick Nuclear Plant, when in reality, KI pills would only protect one gland from one radionuclide. That inaccurate assumption is made because when handing out KI pills, the public is not provided with full disclosure of all the radionuclides that would be released in a nuclear disaster, for which KI pills will not protect us. It's time to tell the whole truth .

Jason Kish's November 21 letter misses the point I made about Potassium Iodide (KI) pills. I wasn't referring to the effectiveness of KI pills protecting the thyroid gland from a concentration of radioactive iodine released in a nuclear plant disaster. The myth I referred to is the false assumption made by many that KI pills are the magic protector in the event of an accident or terrorist attack at Limerick Nuclear Plant, when in reality, KI pills would only protect one gland from one radionuclide. That inaccurate assumption is made because when handing out KI pills, the public is not provided with full disclosure of all the radionuclides that would be released in a nuclear disaster, for which KI pills will not protect us. It's time to tell the whole truth .

"The state misidentified a town in a public announcement during a drill at the Salem nuclear power plant, the Office of Emergency Management said Thursday. The mistake and a delay in getting instructions out to the public mean the state will have to conduct a second drill in July. The drill tested the state's response to a nuclear disaster May 18. In a mock public notice, the state misidentified a town that was subject to a fish advisory, officials said. The state also took 62 minutes to make all the necessary preparations to direct the public to evacuate, take shelter or consume potassium iodide pills in response to the nuclear accident. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the directions should have been issued within 45 to 50 minutes. Everything else in the biannual drill went smoothly, state officials said."

A chilling reminder of the Cold War with Russia is being removed from the majority of homes in a west Highland village. At the height of the tension, the Royal Navy established a berth for nuclear submarines in Broadford Bay, Skye, and therefore had to consider the consequences to the population should there have been any incident causing a radioactive leak into the local environment. One of the precautions taken was to issue everyone living within 1.25 miles of the berth with anti-radiation potassium iodate tablets (Pits) that would help prevent contamination of the thyroid gland.

CHINA has started building a railway to a remote desert region known as 'the sea of death", state media said Wednesday, a place once used as a test site for nuclear bombs. The 360-kilometre railroad from the China-Mongolian border to the Lop Nur area in the northwestern region of Xinjiang will help the nation in its quest for resources, the Xinhua news agency reported. It will improve access to potassium salt, an ingredient in some fertiliser products, and will also make it easier to reach important coal reserves in the region, according to the agency. But apart from that, the railroad, expected to be completed in two years, will also help open up one of China's most mysterious areas.

We live in the shadow of Vermont Yankee (VY). We live with alarm radios in our homes, provided for us free by VY, to alert us if there is an accident at the outdated plant located only a few miles from our homes. We store our potassium iodide pills supplied by the VT Department of Health where we can easily find them. We dutifully review the emergency evacuation route that we must travel in case of a nuclear accident, knowing that VY has acknowledged that it is ineffective. Daily we feel unsafe in the homes and community that we love and have worked hard to live in. Imagine reading these headlines in your newspaper about a nearby nuclear plant: "Nuclear Plant Tower Collapses" and " Plant at 60% reduced Power Due to Radioactive Water Leaks." Imagine reading these headlines knowing there is no insurance that will cover you or your home from the risks of an accident or sabotage or dangerous levels of radioactive waste. Remember that this plant would not be licensed by today's standards and is currently running at 20% over its original design capacity. Please imagine yourself in our place, and remember you too are not that far away and would be affected if there was a major disaster. Please ask your legislator to reject the relicensing of this aged nuclear reactor.

The Yeelirrie uranium project in Western Australia has been reactivated after BHP Billiton applied to the federal government to commence a new process of environmental approval. Yeelirrie is about 420 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie and close to the Goldfields gas pipeline. The deposit was discovered by Western Mining (WMC) in 1972 and found to extend over an area of 9 km x 1.5 km, is up to seven metres thick and has an average depth of about seven metres of overburden. Old published figures show some 52,000 tonnes of uranium oxide at 0.15% average grade, and considerable metallurgical work was done before a new federal Labor government killed the project in 1983. The uranium mineralisation is carnotite (hydrated potassium uranium vanadium oxide).

"Fly ash produced by the Marsa power station when it was still coal-fired, which was dumped on the cliff-edge in Bengħaisa, contained high levels of radioactivity, according to a University study. The pulverised fuel ash had "very high levels of all the radionuclides (radioactive contaminants) under test, namely K40, PB212 and PB214", the research found. The three elements are derivatives of potassium and lead. Winds and rain occasionally spill the fly ash, which was covered with soil off the cliff-edge and into the sea below. The mound is situated at the back of the Freeport on the south eastern cliff face that borders Ħal Far industrial estate. Scientific tests on the mound of fly ash were conducted five years ago by Josette Camilleri and Franco Montesin from the University's Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering and Michael Sammut from the hospital's Pathology Department. The study was published in the American journal Waste Management. "I was surprised by the reaction when it was recently revealed that fly ash from the power stations was dumped in a quarry, because everybody seems to have forgotten that radioactive fly ash produced when coal was burned at Marsa was dumped in a disused quarry at Bengħisa," Dr Camilleri said."