They are part of all the medicine cabinets of the inhabitants who live not far from the Cattenom nuclear power plant: iodine tablets have been distributed again since Monday, in the pharmacies of the north of Moselle.
While the 112 municipalities located within a 20 km radius of the power plant have been covered by the national protection plan since 2019, the renewal now only targets those located less than 10 km away. That is 41 municipalities including Thionville, Yutz, Terville, Hettange-Grande and Volmerange-les-Mines, Roussy-le Village, Kanfen and Zoufftgen. The residents’ stickers had expired since 2022.
The Moselle prefect points out that these tablets are part of the protective measures in the event of an incident. Taking stable iodine tablets saturates the thyroid gland – an organ essential for hormonal regulation – which can no longer capture or fix radioactive iodine.
In Luxembourg, such a distribution was organised in 2014 and the Luxembourg authorities estimate that half of the inhabitants had collected the tablets. Stocks are also stored in municipalities and other public establishments.
