Japan’s Nuclear Risk Revives Iodide Supply Debate in U.S.

U.S. lawmakers want federal authorities to expand the availability of potassium iodide to protect people who live near nuclear power plants from the cancer-causing effects of radiation.

Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the senior Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, urged the White House to provide the medicine to people within 20 miles of plants, not just the 10-mile radius currently enforced. Representative Gus Bilirakis, a Florida Republican who chairs a panel that will hold a hearing tomorrow on nuclear-emergency preparedness, also supports the policy, his spokesman, Creighton Welch, said in an e-mail.