Where’s Senator William Proxmire when you need him.

For at least two decades, the maverick Wisconsin Democrat dedicated himself to protecting the taxpayer and publicly skewering wasteful, unnecessary projects that did little more than keep a few more bureaucrats on the government dole.

I bet the good senator from my home state would be having a field day with a newly issued federal ruling regarding health risks to residents surrounding nuclear power plants.

After 18 years of study, the best the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could do is require states to CONSIDER the distribution of potassium iodide pills to the 80 thousand or so neighbors who dwell in the vicinity of each of America’s 70 nuclear facilities.   The Feds would pick up the tab for any state willing to participate in the distribution program. 

Potassium iodide can fill the thyroid gland and prevent it from soaking up a radioactive isotope which has been linked to cancer in those exposed to excessive fall-out.

Let's make this clear.  We’re not arguing the merits of potassium iodide. A friend tells me his Polish sister-in-law waited in line all night to receive tablets for her two children when southerly winds blew radioactive clouds in their direction from the Chernobyl nuclear accident site. My family has a supply for ourselves, not because we fear nuclear power plant accidents but because Russia, China and others may one day choose to use America for target practice. 

We are questioning the time it took (18 years) and the meely-mouthed, vacillating recommendations resulting that cost US taxpayers more than 2.6 million dollars.

The use of potassium iodide to protect the human thyroid gland is NOT new science. That kind of slam-dunk conclusion could have been reached in about ten minutes on the Internet. If the government reimbursed each of the experts online with a free cup of coffee and a doughnut, we could have escaped with less than a 50-dollar total budget.

Instead, the Commission met, year in…year out, reversing itself twice on the issue of potassium iodide distribution and spending more than two point six million dollars to study the issue.  That's more than the cost of purchasing ALL the required medications.

It’s probably not a bad idea for every American to keep a limited supply of Potassium Iodide around the house, just in case our foreign "friends" ever play their real hands.

But I’m not going to lose any sleep at night over an efficiently-run American nuclear power industry that, unlike those poorly designed Chernobyl units, meets or exceeds every standard set for it by the US government.

The scare-mongers in the liberal press never bother to tell us about the new generation of IFR units, Integral Fast Reactors, that automatically shut down in case of the slightest bit of overheating. These units are so safe that, once shut down, they become extremely difficult to restart. And all because the designers put safety first.

In closing, we’ll note that it never hurts to be prepared. Potassium iodide should find its place into the medicine chest of every American family, but not for the reasons trumpeted by left-wing green extremists.

And the next time they commission a government study, I suggest they limit the incumbents to no more than 8 years in office.

It works for the President. And it works for me.

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