WITHIN 10 MILES OF VOGTLE

Concerned citizens group won’t distribute pills yet



A citizen group in Burke County will hold off on distributing potassium iodide pills to residents around Plant Vogtle until residents can be properly educated.

The Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff announced last week they plan to provide the tablets to residents who live within a 10- mile radius of Plant Vogtle, so they may take them if there is a “nuclear accident or meltdown,” according to information provided by the group.

Potassium iodide, when taken properly, can block the absorption of radioactive iodine by the thyroid, thus helping protect a person from thyroid cancer if they are exposed to radioactive iodine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The thyroid gland is the part of the body that is most sensitive to radioactive iodine.

However, the CDC stresses that there are also a number of health risks associated with taking potassium iodide, and it should only be taken at the advice of public health or emergency management officials. Even then, specific dosages are prescribed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Rev. Charles Utley, who is heading up the program for the group, said this is why they plan to hold several public meetings to educate residents about storage, side-effects and proper use of the tablets before they are given out.

There were about 15 residents, he said, at such a meeting last Saturday at Bottsford Spring Baptist Church on Seven Oaks Road. He said another meeting is planned for Feb. 14, and they won’t likely distribute any tablets to households until March.

“If it takes fifteen of those little meetings, that is what we’ll do,” Rev. Utley said. “Some people might think this is a regular regimen. None of the tablets will be given out until we are satisfied that they know the reasons why and how to do it.”

Even then, Rev. Utley said, they will only be given to heads of households who show they can be responsible for them.

The Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff is a chapter of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, which has long been opposed to the two additional nuclear reactors under construction at Plant Vogtle now. The group developed the potassium iodide distribution project after researching the response after the Fukashima disaster in 2011. Rev. Utley said they knew residents in South Carolina’s portion of the 10-mile radius surrounding Plant Vogtle were already provided with the tablets by officials there, so they wanted to focus on the closest residents in Burke County.

Officials at Southern Nuclear Operating Company, which operates the two reactors at Plant Vogtle, did not comment specifically on the group’s distribution of potassium iodide tablets, but stated that the Georgia Emergency Management Agency would coordinate all protective measures for the public if there were ever an emergency at the plant.

“Southern Nuclear’s top priority is the safety and health of the public and our employees,” Southern Nuclear’s Michelle Tims said. “We maintain comprehensive emergency preparedness plans that have been developed in accordance with federal requirements by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other oversight agencies designed to protect the health and safety of the public in the event of an emergency at any company nuclear facility.”



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