Risk of a radioactive cloud in France: the prefecture of Oise sends a letter to the communes of the communes

Beauvais, October 18, 2022

The Prefect of Oise

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Ladies and gentlemen, Presidents of EPCIs with their own taxation

Dear Mayor

from the department of Oise

Subject: Procedure for distributing iodine tablets in a radioactive cloud

Several of you have asked me about the procedure for the distribution of iodine tablets which, according to the ORSEC plan, would be triggered if a radioactive cloud passed through the department following a nuclear incident at a nearby nuclear power plant.

Our department has a specific ORSEC regulation aimed at clarifying the plans for the provision, transport and distribution of stocks of potassium iodide tablets, as well as the conditions for their distribution to the population of the Oise department, in the conditions of a slow kinetic crisis. This plan contains confidential information and therefore cannot be distributed. However, I can provide you with the following information so that you can plan a distribution chain for these tablets in your community.

In the event of a nuclear incident, the plan is triggered by order of the national authorities. The stocks allocated to the Oise, pre-positioned at wholesalers, are released and delivered to designated locations, known as “replenishment locations”, within a maximum of 12 hours.

According to the current ORSEC plan, these are the former main towns of the canton (before the 2014 redistribution): Attichy; Auneuil; Beauvais (Southwest, Northeast and Northwest); betz; Breteuil; sweet whipped cream; Chaumont-en-Vexin; Clermont; Compiègne (north, south-east and south-west); Le Coudray-Saint-Germer; Creil (south) and Creil-Nogent-sur-Oise; Crepy en Valois; Crèvecoeur-leGrand; Estrées-Saint-Denis; Previously; Cheerful; Grandvilliers; guiscard; Lassignia; Liancourt; Maignelay-Montigny; Marseille-en-Beauvaisis; meru; Montaire; Mouy; Nanteuil le Hadouin; Neuilly-en-Thelle; Niviller; noailles; noon; Pont Sainte Maxence; Ressons-sur-Matz; Ribecourt-Dreslincourt; Saint Just en Chaussee; senlis; Let’s think.

In the future ORSEC plan, which is currently being revised, these locations will be replaced by the headquarters of the 21 EPCIs with their own tax system in the department. This revision is not yet effective. The EPCIs must therefore provide a suitable organization that will enable them to receive and distribute their iodine tablet batches to their member communities as quickly as possible in future in the event of a crisis.

So far, the tablets are stored on pallets (approx. 1 m3) with 100,000 tablets. Each pallet consists of 50 boxes of 200 boxes of 10 tablets. 1 carton therefore contains 2000 tablets and corresponds in volume to a carton of giant A4 paper. The volume of caching to be provided within each EPCI is therefore not very large and the municipal services withdrawing their allocation do not have to mobilize exceptional means of transport.

For the municipalities, the organization to be planned remains the same with this difference in relation to the collection point of the tablets:

In the first place, it is up to the municipal authority to go as quickly as possible to the location of the charging break where it is located (currently the former ones), at the express request of the prefecture (the alerting procedure by SMS, email and telephone would be used). capitals of the canton mentioned above; soon at the headquarters of the EPCI, of which it will be part if the new plan is adopted) to withdraw their communal plot to distribute to their population.

At the same time, mayors must also plan to in form their constituents of this distribution by any means at their disposal: telephone, loudspeaker, door-to-door, etc. The prefectural communications department will contact the press and radio to issue instructions to the population in accordance with the general provisions of the ORSEC plan.

Then it is a question of planning the modalities of this emergency distribution: definition of the distribution sites, the activation procedures (preparation of the premises) and their operation (guidance and assistance to citizens, management of tablet stocks, maintenance). the distribution register, explanation of dosing and confinement instructions received from the prefecture).

The organization chosen by the municipalities and EPCI must be able to apply 7 days a week.

The municipal subsidy is calculated according to the number of inhabitants. The mobile population must support themselves from the properties of the community in which they are located. When the plan is triggered, the mayor must determine the additional need for tablets for the traveling population who cannot return to their community of residence. This need should be reported to the prefecture to mobilize an additional assignment.

Iodine is a drug that must be given to the population in emergencies. Pharmacists can carry out this delivery and support it or, in the absence of a pharmacist, proceed directly with this distribution, under the responsibility of the prefect of the department:

1° other health professionals,

2° Failing this, the persons expressly referred to in article L 721-2 of the Code on internal security: professional firefighters and volunteer firefighters of the fire brigade and rescue services, as well as State personnel and the soldiers of units permanently engaged with civilian missions Security, the volunteers and employees of the accredited civil security associations, the soldiers of the armies and the national gendarmerie, the personnel of the national police and the representatives of the State, local authorities and public or private institutions and bodies appointed to carry out tasks in the related to protecting the population or maintaining the continuity of national life, as well as reservists and auxiliaries of civil security and the fire brigade.

On the day of distribution, you will be informed of the dosage and the operational center of the Prefectural Department will be open to answer your questions and provide you with the necessary support, mobilizing the various civil security actors.

This information will likely allow you to organize distribution logistics in advance to save time if needed when the plan is triggered. I draw your attention to the speed with which this distribution must occur. I therefore recommend that you formalize this process in your intercommunal or community security plans, or at least by developing a reflex arc.

I will keep you informed of any changes to this process and in particular the decision on the new plan when it can be finalized.

the prefect

Corinne Orzechowski