All Belgians To Be Given Iodine Pills In Case Of Nuclear Accident (phys.org) 192
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.
ISIS much? (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.
cost effective solution (Score:2, Offtopic)
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Won't handing out the pills just make the public think the plant is more dangerous than they thought before?
Re:ISIS much? (Score:5, 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?
Re:ISIS much? (Score:5, Insightful)
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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.
Are you so sure?
What if someone blew up the primary loop pumps and emptied or blew up the cooling pools?
That's 2 bombs and then you have an uncooled pressure cooker full of fissile material and other nasty fission byproducts in a place that's become out of reach because of the massive radioactivity from the uncovered used fuel.
It may not go full Tchernobyl, but it definitely may go Fukushima-style.
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.
Agreeing with you here.
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Why not. If you can help quell unreasonable fears for a few bucks, just do it.
A stunt like this amplifies unreasonable fears, not quells them. Just like it did when the CD handed out iodine and dosimeters in the US during the cold war and those fears were much more reasonable.
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You are basing your doubts on guesses. If you would stop being so scared of ISIS and look at the safety records of the plants in question, you'd see it's not some scary ISIS guys they're scared of.
You are indeed an anonymous coward.
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Airspace uncontrolled (Score:2)
New world order (Score:2)
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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.
Sadly, this is true. Its an interesting aspect of human behavior, fear things we are not familiar with.
sunscreen doesn't work against nukes (Score:2)
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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.
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For a guy calling himself 'mdsolar', how many pro-solar power articles have you seen him post? He doesn't even seem to be pro-renewable energy or anti-fossil fuel, just solidly anti-nuclear.
I'm convinced that he's actually an Eliza bot run by the coal industry.
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Oh wait (Score:2)
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It does have a problem, but they're not stupid enough to let their fear or ignorance lead them to a conclusion which will negatively affect hundreds of thousands of people just to make cowards like you feel better.
Yes, if you make evil racist claims, get prepared to be called an evil racist.
Re:ISIS much? (Score:4, 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.
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What the fuck are you talking about? Do you think that acknowledging that your country has a very real problem with an unassimilated immigrant population that has a propensity for committing terrorism is the same thing as RACIAL GENOCIDE?!?
Do me a favor. I want you to call up your mother tonight and apologize to her for growing up to be a complete fucking idiot.
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silly belgians... (Score:4, Funny)
You don't use iodine pills to commit suicide!
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Seeing as there are over 1.6bn Muslims and everyone is not dead, you are clearly wrong.
Commutative rule (Score:2)
Do I take radiation pills for an iodine accident?
They will be shut soon anyway - old plant (Score:3)
The real decision was made years ago because you can't have a civilian nuclear industry without building a reactor every few years so that the skillsets are not lost - so the choice was made to halt and we're seeing nothing but the tail of what was. Outside India, China and Russia the civilian nuclear industry is effectively dead and would require a very expensive restart before anything better than early 1980s technology (AP1000) can happen.
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But nuclear is magic (Score:4, Funny)
It's perfectly safe and anyone who disagrees is a tree-hugging enviro whack-job!
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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.
Re: But nuclear is magic (Score:2)
Nuclear is far more immediately damaging than fossil fuels and the problems tend to be more notice and more damaging. I'm sure the people of Chernobyl would rather they'd lived next to an oil refinery or a coal mine. Their children wouldn't still be being born with deformities 30 years after an explosion in one of those. Nuclear waste has to be buried in concrete bunkers. Does oil or coal residue? How dangerous is solar or wind in comparison?
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60,000 excess cancer fatalities from Chernobyl (Score:3)
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Their maths might be correct, but they say the TORCH report estimates between 30,000 to 60,000, the WHO's at ~9,000, and "published estimates" between 14,000 and 30,000. The fact you picked the highest of the highest estimates, and pretended like that was the final figure with no doubt reeks of duplicity.
Get a grip. We get it. You don't like nuclear. You'll find more friends if you stop lying to people.
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Re: But nuclear is magic (Score:5, Informative)
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That is not evidence. That is your guesswork dressed up with a link to Wikipedia. You're not really looking like someone who gives a shit about credibility.
Been happening in Switzerland for some time (Score:3)
hmm (Score:2)
Given that Brussels, where the EU bigheads find themselves fairly often, is in Belgium this would appear to include them as well.
Wonder how long it'll be before the EU puts pressure on BE to actually make safe (however that needs to be done) the reactors in question.
Mutants! (Score:2)
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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.
They do accumulate (Score:2)
Not in the US, though. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm usually in either Silicon Valley or western Nevada.
After Fukishima, but before the fallout cloud got here, I tried to get some iodine supplement pills, to load up on non-radioactive iodine before the cloud arrived.
Couldn't do it.
There were no iodine supplements in the drug stores, or the health-food stores.
Also no tincture of iodine, iodine-based water purification tablets at the camping stores (where it used to be available as a water purifier - and has since been replace by other chemicals, ultrafilters, and backpack-sized pressure-cookers.)
(Even iodized salt was hard to find - and would have been poisonous at the necessary levels absent major iodine extraction.)
A compounding pharmacy offered to make up some - for an exorbatant fee - but they didn't have potassium iodide or other iodine compounds in stock. They would have had to back-order it, and the pills would have taken a month (while the fallout cloud would arrive in a couple days.
WTF?
Turns out that it's a casualty of the Drug War. Iodine is used in some street-drug manufacturing process. So (like pseudoephedrine) the government has imposed massive red tape on sales to the general population. These make it unprofitable, so the major outlets have all dropped it and moved on to other things.
Many months later I heard someone being interviewed on a conservative talk radio show, suggesting that the government should stock iodine supplements around the country and make them available on a moment's notice for protection from radiological attacks and other events - and for people to stock them themselves. He and the host were lamenting that the stupid bureaucrats wouldn't take such an obvious preventative measure. If I hadn't been on my way to work at the time I'd have called in and told them "It's the Drug War, stupid!"
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There were no iodine supplements in the drug stores, or the health-food stores.
This website has iodine pills, and lots of other stuff: amazon.com [amazon.com].
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and by the time it gets here (assuming it isn't sold out) the fallout cloud has come, dumped, and gone, and the radioiodine is concentrated in your thyroid
You should learn to plan ahead. The time to buy essential supplies is not in the middle of a crisis.
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What are these things you speak of? Never heard a none American utter any of them. Shit normally packages from Amazon take about 2 weeks to get to me. Fortunately I'm no where near a fallout cloud.
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That must be a California thing. Around here, iodine tincture is readily available in drug stores, Walmart, etc. Don't know about KI tablets or water purification tablets, since I've never bothered looking, but those are both readily available on the internet. I imagine they could have sold out during the panic, but if I ordered today, Amazon could get me either by tomorrow.
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It's not just about Belgium (Score:3)
Until now, everyone living within 20km of a nuclear power plant had to have immediate access to iodine pills. The High Council for Health (a scientific body responsible for giving advice concerning health regulations to the government) has advised to increased this radius to 100km, and the government has followed this advice. Everyone in Belgium lives within 100km of a Belgian, Dutch or French nuclear power plant. Hence, iodine pills for everyone.
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Do the Dutch or French living within 20 or 100 km from Belgian plants get the delicious pills too?
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That's up to their national authorities to decide.
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It seems you were discussing the neighbouring countries' governments.
Nothing new here (Score:2)
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Can you actually overdose on Iodine? I don't think so.
Of course, there are also people who don't need these pills -- people who have had Thyroid cancer and don't have and remaining thyroid tissue.
Re:Do not push this button (Score:5, Informative)
You can, around 10-20mg/kg is the LD50 in most animals, however these will not be pure iodine pills.
Your take iodine to stop the body taking up radioactive iodine, which gets quite nasty due to its activity and retention.
If your bodies iodine requirements are met already, the radioactive iodine will pass through you with little effect.
For the general population, iodine supplements are highly beneficial, primarily to the brain development and function.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency
This seems like a low risk, low cost, if somewhat paranoid precaution.
Iodine is not exactly a difficult thing to source in bulk if/when needed, but hey, why not.
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Since I know someone who went through thyroid cancer, including ablation using I-131, I was somewhat familiar, with the issues, including the effects of insufficient iodine.
With no thyroid tissue (following radioactive ablation), the body won't retain any iodine.
Re:Do not push this button (Score:4, 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.
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Most salts don't contain iodine.
It is written on the package if it does. I usually salt with iodine but also simple sea salt, which contains all kinds of salts/minerals.
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Most salts in the "west" (what the person wrote - assuming they mean the US) are indeed iodized. Sea salt however has no added iodine (though it has its normal iodine levels). Pickling/canning salt isn't iodized either.
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Well, in most countries I have visited you get "normal" salt (without iodine), sea salt, and normal salt that has iodine additions. You can pick in any shop if you want iodined salt or not.
If salt has extra iodine it is written on the package.
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The reason why here in the west(North America, most of Central America, most of Asia and most of Europe), we add iodine to salt is because goiter was such a wide spread problem at one point, that adding it fixed the problem. A lot of those countries you've visited, you'll find moderate to serious thyroid problems throughout the population.
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you'll find moderate to serious thyroid problems throughout the population.
I doubt that.
Especially as they have the alternative to by salt that has iodine in it. I just pointed out it is not mandatory to put iodine into it and it is not in every salt.
You know: there are people that actually eat fish or other stuff with high enough amounts of iodine :D
And I for my part never really use salt, except for cooking pasta and in my salad and boiled eggs (and that is either sea salt or salt with iodine, I don't bu
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Well, that just ruins some of my "Farnham's Freehold" fanfic.
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Thesupraman has everything right and I'm just filling in background.
What makes a radioisotope dangerous is
1. A long enough half-life that it is still around when the plume reaches its first victims
2. A short enough half-life to be intensely radioactive.
3. A tendency to get stuck in the body by looking like something the body normally uses. Strontium-90 mimics calcium. Iodine is iodine.
I've seen potassium iodide in mail order catalogs.
Can you actually overdose (Score:3)
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If you want to play it safe, or if you don't have an iodine pill, the best thing to do when your local nuke reactor goes critical
I thought the best thing I could do was to slug a couple of shots of bourbon, grab a pistol and go settle some scores.
Re:Do not push this button (Score:5, Interesting)
We live "near" two nuclear plants and a temporary storage and research facility in Switzerland. All households around here have these pills in storage. So far no major problems occurred with that. I expect in Belgium it'll be similar. In the US I couldn't say, although my prejudices are screaming at me to go all out ;).
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::: qnd nothing of vqlue zqs lost
I meant "... and nothing of value was lost". My keyboard went all Belgian.
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Here's the site that they used in Ontario, not bad as far as public education sites go. I particularly enjoyed the "should I feed it to my pet" faq. Surely the result of a headdesk after too many people called the info line.
https://preparetobesafe.ca/ [preparetobesafe.ca]
Min
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Re:Do not push this button (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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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'm so sorry, normally I would not have shared a video without a transcript, but this one just wasn't the same in text format.
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Hmm, I can't seem to find an hour long TED talk describing how much I agree with you... so this "comment" will have to do. ((insert emoji of a sad chicken crying with its head in its wings here))
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I suspect that slashdot might allow crying chickens before they get round to allowing thorns.
U+1f4a9 U+0x308
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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.
And what cuts were those? The US spends vast amounts of money on education. Typically around 1/2 of all property taxes go to local education. That's in addition to federal education spending [cato.org]
Many will dismiss the link because it comes from the Cato Institute but they got the data from government sources. You're right that education sucks in America but it's not for a lack of spending.
Idiocy is universal (Score:2)
They didn't get the same "no child left behind" or "ebonics" cut-price education that would require what you suggest.
One thing I've learned over time is that idiocy is pretty universal. Us Americans just like talking about it more.
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Keep telling yourself that and see if that fixes the problem.
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actually, the computer is British invention, (http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/hist/ ) that due to political lack of foresight we gave to the Americans and then destroyed and hushed it up as secret for 50 years.
The WWW is British too, so the internet as in webpages which most of your countrymen consider the "internet" isn't American either.
Thank you for demonstrating the stereotype of Americans being stupid, you win the internet.
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Because she didn't destroy security for all Europe, or even Germany?
Also, it's spelled "Merkel". If you can't even get that right, why should anyone listen to anything you have to say on the matter? Clearly you don't have a full grasp of the situation.
Re:Stupid leftist commies (Score:5, 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.
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A terrorist is someone who uses violence or the threat thereof to enact political change. So no, you can't just say "it's a spectrum" and include anyone you want. Well, you can, but it's illogical and anyone with more than a fleeting familiarity with critical thinking knows you are off your rocker.
So yeah, you are an Anonymous Coward par excellence.
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I assume the pills are Potassium Iodide. per Wikipedia when Potassium Iodide is exposed to air, it very slowly oxidizes to Potassium Carbonate and Iodine. (It turns yellowish). Iodine is sort of nasty stuff. It eats holes in things. So, yeah, I guess it's a real date ... sort of ...
However, If I were engulfed in a cloud of I-131 two days after the box expires, I think I'd chance the "expired" pill.
There's a solution for that (Score:2)
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The governments are also the people who brought you the TSA, infringe your rights in an ever increasing frequency, deny you due cause, and ring a constant campaign of manufacturing endless fear, spending billions on terrorism while letting people die from cheaper to prevent methods.
I'm sure they have their reasons too.
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Yep, they'd probably do more to reduce cancer by handing out free sunblock.