Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) is calling on the U.S. government to require residents within 20 miles of a nuclear plant to have iodine tablets on hand as sales of the pills in the U.S. and Canada soar in response to the nuclear explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
It’s been 22 years since scientists recommended implementing the tablet policy after the Three Mile Island incident, Markey said.
“You don’t need to study these pills to believe that they prevent cancer,” he said at a Wednesday hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee dedicated to the nation’s energy budget. “I think the Obama administration should immediately implement the policy for all residents within a 20-mile radius of a nuclear plant.”
Taking iodine tablets can help saturate the body with iodine so that the thyroid gland doesn’t absorb the dangerous radioactive iodine released in a nuclear accident.
Markey also said Congress should reject the $36 billion in loan guarantees for more nuclear construction President Obama has asked for in this year’s budget, calling them just as “toxic” as the billions in bailouts the government provided banks amid the economic crisis.
If a catastrophic event took place in the U.S. like Japan is experiencing, Markey said, “industry would be okay, but the taxpayer would end up picking up the tab.”
Others sought to calm fears about Japan and a similar radioactive event taking place in the U.S. after an earthquake, other natural disaster or terrorist attack.
“It is just as important to dispel overstated fears as it is to discuss legitimate concerns, and I know we can begin the process of doing both,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who chairs the panel.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu told Congress that federal regulators are watching the events in Japan very closely and will learn from the crisis and boost safety measures at current and proposed U.S. nuclear reactors if warranted.
“We are going to be looking very, very closely at what happened in Japan,” he said. “You can be sure with the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] leading this … we will be looking very carefully and gathering information from any other lessons we’ve learned.”
Chu also said the nuclear catastrophe unfolding in Japan appears to be worse than what the U.S. experienced at Three Mile Island in 1979, but “to what extent, we don’t know.”
With the extent of the problem shifting hour by hour, it’s impossible to know the true extent of the meltdowns and their impact on the public, he said.
“That’s why the [U.S. officials from the] NRC are there … not only to help the Japanese government, but for our own sake so we know what’s happening” on the ground, he said.
The events unfolding in Japan, however, are not immediately impacting the President’s energy policy and plans to expand U.S. dependence on nuclear or the $36 billion Obama has requested in new loan guarantees for nuclear construction.
Chu told the panel there has been no changes in budget priorities regarding nuclear construction in the wake of the disaster in Japan.
