No Scenario of Events at Zaporizhzhia NPP Requires Iodine Prophylaxis

There are currently no reasons to use iodine pills or iodine solutions. The unreasonable use of potassium iodide pills threatens your health. Ingestion of iodine tincture, Betadine or Lugol’s solution can cause serious burns to the mucous membrane and poisoning.

No scenario of events at the Zaporizhzhia NPP requires iodine prophylaxis!

Iodine prophylaxis involves saturating the thyroid gland with stable iodine to prevent the absorption of radioactive iodine isotopes and subsequent irradiation. The important aspects of iodine prophylaxis can be found here.

Radioactive iodine is only generated when a nuclear power unit is operating at full power, meaning that it is generating electricity. The last operating unit of the Zaporizhzhya NPP was shut down in September 2022. This means that the Zaporizhzhya NPP units have been in a shutdown state for at least nine months and have not been generating any electricity during this time.

Iodine I-131 has the longest half-life among all the iodine isotopes, reducing to half of its initial amount within approximately eight days. The remaining isotopes of radioactive iodine have even shorter half-lives. This implies that at least 34 half-lives of this iodine isotope have passed since the Zaporizhzhia NPP units were shut down. In other words, the activity of iodine in the last stopped Zaporizhzhia NPP reactor has decreased billions of times compared to September 2022.

Therefore, iodine prophylaxis only makes sense if there is an actual threat of radioactive iodine entering the body, which is not the case at the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

In the event of a hypothetical accident or terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the release of radioactive substances would not include iodine isotopes. Hence, iodine prophylaxis would not be necessary.

Taking potassium iodide pills under such conditions is not only useless but also harmful.

The decision to administer iodine is made by local executive authorities based on the forecast of the radiological situation and information provided by representatives of the plant operating organization, Ministry of Health of Ukraine, and State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

Please rely on official sources of information and follow our updates.