Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what (a) national and (b) local arrangements are in place for issuing iodine tablets in the event of a radiation emergency involving an operational civil nuclear reactor or reprocessing facility; which localities have had a pre-distribution of iodine tablets to households and what the radii of those localities are; to which nuclear reactors those (a) national and (b) local arrangements are linked; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman

Civil nuclear emergency preparedness is a devolved issue, with the Scottish Government taking responsibility for planning in Scotland. England and Wales have arrangements in place to ensure stable iodine is available to potentially affected populations around civil nuclear reactor sites.

Locally, stable iodine is pre-distributed around civil nuclear reactor sites to a distance that has been assessed by the Office for Nuclear Regulation to be sufficient for all reasonably foreseeable emergencies.