Re: Potassium Iodide -Reply -Reply

["Sorensen, Scott" <ssorensen@doeal.gov>]

RadSafers,

Re:  prophylactic KI administration during nuclear reactor emergencies.

To help frame the debate/comments, I suggest the proposed NRC
recommendations be applied to real life scenario, namely the TMI
accident.  (I'm assuming that Chernobyl-magnitude releases would be
highly improbable in countries using light-water reactors)  Under the
proposed recommendations:

1) would KI had been issued (or would the populace be advised to take
KI)?
2) to how many people?
3) at what cost?
4) preventing how much thyroid cancer (or decreasing thyroid cancer risk
by what)?
5) how many adverse reactions can be expected (either K or I
sensitivities)?
6) how many deaths could occur from these adverse reactions?

These estimates would be useful in judging the efficacy of the proposed
recommendations.  Having grown up in the shadow of TMI, I'm also
interested to learn if  KI really would have helped the situation...

-Scott Sorensen
ssorensen@doeal.gov