Ukraine last week asked the EU for the potassium iodide pills. Concerns about Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, now in the middle of a war zone, are growing by the day. The Russian army would use the plant to store equipment and fire from there. Ukraine would return that fire.
Iodine pills prevent the radioactive iodine that ends up in the air during a nuclear disaster from settling in the body. Young people in particular run the risk of developing thyroid cancer.
Five million of the tablets come from the EU’s emergency stock. Austria adds another half a million. The delivery has a total value of half a million euros.
“We will continue to watch out and be ready to act,” said European Commissioner Janez Lenarcic. “Because readiness saves lives.” He reiterates that “no nuclear power plant should ever be used for warfare”. “All military activities around the Zaporizhzhya power plant must stop immediately.”