 
WHO NEEDS IOSAT?
There are approximately 100 commercial nuclear plants in the United States, each with one or more reactors. It is estimated that a "Chernobyl-sized" accident could spread radioiodine for hundreds of miles around each. Many people (especially in the Northeast) live within the danger radius of multiple plants.
200 Mile Radius Around - US Operating Nuclear Plants
Fortunately, while nuclear reactors contain numerous radioactive products, most of the danger can be isolated to iodine. This is because iodine is unique in that
a) It is very abundant in a reactor,
b) It remains in the environment for a month or more,
c) It is biologically active, and once absorbed stays in the body where it is concentrated in the thyroid, and
d) Under accident conditions it can form an aerosol which can be blown downwind for hundreds of miles
No other radioactive product shares these characteristics, which is why health professionals fear the release of radioactive iodine more than any other consequence of a reactor accident. Estimates suggest that 95% of all health effects in a nuclear accident would be thyroid related, and that the prompt use of KI could prevent almost all of the injuries that would otherwise occur (in areas more than a few miles away from the plant site).
Unfortunately, current safety regulations for America’s nuclear plants are surprisingly unconcerned with the impact of iodine on the, literally, millions of people located more than a few miles from the reactor. Instead, emergency planning is essentially limited to a small "Emergency Planning Zone" (EPZ) of 5 to 10 miles around the plant, and is focused on evacuation of all people who might be exposed to radiation. There are virtually no plans in place to protect the much larger number of people located from 10 to 200 miles from the plant site, for whom evacuation is not feasible.
Yet, the potential for large casualties outside the EPZ is not unknown by authorities. According to figures provided by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), radioiodine could injure people located as far away as 200 miles from a reactor. If, for example, an accident were to occur at one of the Indian Point reactors (25 miles north of New York City), enough radioiodine could be released to potentially injure one person in every other household in northern New Jersey. In New York City, itself, from 25% to 40% of all adults would be expected to be injured, with children at twice the risk. At these levels, of course, casualties would number in the millions.
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