What is Radioactive Iodine?

One of the most feared consequences of a nuclear reactor accident or nuclear bomb is the release of a radioactive iodine plume into the environment. Radioactive Iodine (I-131) is a by-product of nuclear fission which occurs only within a nuclear reactor or during detonation of a nuclear bomb. What makes radioactive iodine so dangerous is that the body cannot distinguish it from ordinary iodine. As a result, if swallowed (in contaminated food or water), or inhaled (it can remain in the atmosphere for days), it will be absorbed into the thyroid gland (only the thyroid absorbs iodine) and may lead to thyroid cancer, especially in children. The value of Potassium Iodide (KI) tablets were demonstrated following the Chernobyl nuclear accident, where authorities began mass distribution of Potassium Iodide just hours after the explosion. In the years following the accident in areas where people received the drug, the incidence of thyroid cancer has not increased. But where Potassium Iodide was not distributed, previously rare forms of juvenile thyroid cancer have begun appearing at epidemic rates, with over 11,000 known cases. This number continues to rise and is not expected to peak until 2010.