Why is our gov't buying so many potassium iodide tablets????

[James48]

36. No- that's not it.

States are legally responsible for considering buying and stocking Potassium Iodine for use locally near nuclear power plants.

The Federal Government is mainly responsible only for preparing for it's FEMA teams, the U.S. Military, and those segments of the federal government directly responsible for reacting to/ responding to a nuclear incident. It does not provide tabs for local populations- that is the state government planner's role. These tabs - 700,000, are to provide an approximate 2 day supply to those federal government employees/ FEMA teams/ Soldiers-Troops who might be within 10 miles of a nuclear incident when it occurs. It is not a buy for the general public.

Shelf life of tablets is typically 6 or 7 years- so it's actually a normal buy here to replace tabs bought last in 2006 or 2007.

See http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/emerg-preparedness/about-emerg-preparedness/potassium-iodide/ki-faq.html

for more details.

No big deal.