Arkansas Nuclear One
I saw that headline and said to myself, “wait a minute … that can’t be true”. The eyes and ears — and a few face masks — of the world are glued to the horrific events unfolding everyday in Japan. Prime Minister Kan just had the threat level raised from a 4 to a 5. And then I come across a story about nine US cities with nuclear power plants that don’t engage their citizens in a federal program designed to protect them against radiation. I’m stunned. Even more troubling is that two of these cities’ nuclear power plants are listed among 14 near misses in a report by the NRC and Union of Concerned Scientists.
The Center for Public Integrity reports that:
The crippled nuclear plant in Japan raises many questions about American preparedness in the event of a stateside radiological crisis. The Center finds that in nearly a third of the states [United States] with nuclear power plants, nearby residents do not have the protection of federally-supplied potassium iodide pills for treatment in the event of a radiation crisis like that in Japan. Nine states — Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, and Washington — do not participate in the federal program administered by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to NRC records and a survey by the Center.
Read the full article. Citizens of these states should immediately be contacting their elected officials to find out why!
