The Distribution of Iodine In The Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plant : The Impocibility of "Banalizing" Nuclear Power. François Duchene, Architecte-urbaniste, Chargé de recherches, and Valérie Ferrand, Ingénieur, Laboratoire Rives, UMR CNRS n° 5600, École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l’État, rue M. Audin, F-69518 Vaulx-en-Velin cedex, telephone 04.72.04.70.59, fax 04.72.04.70.88, e-mail duchene@entpe.fr
For local populations, nuclear accidents are dangerous in that highly radioactive elements may spill into the surrounding atmosphere. Amongst these elements, people are especially afraid of carcinogenic radioactive iodine, which, once absorbed by the organism, lodges in the thyroid gland. Preventive ingestion of non-radioactive iodine pills saturates the thyroid and prevents the fixation of radioactive iodine elements. The preventive distribution of iodine lozenges in the vicinity of all nuclear power plants was made compulsory in 1966. For the French electricity board, Electricité de France (E.D.F.), a state-run company which was more accustomed to "communicating" than to informing, this practice means "disquieting" - but not frightening - local residents.
A (qualitative) survey was made near the Bugey nuclear power plant, north east of Lyons (France), to assess the reaction of the local population to this campaign and, more generally speaking, to the power plant itself.
The proximity of an industrial estate housing several classified chemicals plants could presumably tend to "trivialise" a nuclear risk. But when the subject of an accident is broached with local residents, reactions range from trust in a "State company" to certain forms of denial (or euphemisation) of the risk, which partially conceal people's real anxiety. The distribution of iodine revives uncertainties concerning not only the risks entailed by the power plant but also relationships between E.D.F. and the surrounding area (economic role of the plant, job creation, non-integration of E.D.F. employees in the local community). More broadly speaking, is E.D.F. the most appropriate agent to oversee the distribution of iodine?
Above and beyond a mere assessment of the "iodine" operation, this paper will examine the actual place of the plant in its social, historical, economic (and, more generally, territorial) environment.
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