There some reassurance that Amherstburg residents wouldn't be completely on their own if there was a problem at the Fermi 2 nuclear plant in Michigan.
While the province has denied the town funding for a nuclear preparedness plan, it has provided iodine pills to the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.
Iodine pills slow the absorption of radiation in the event of a leak.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed says they're working on a distribution plan and hope to get provincial support. "We are right now negotiating the timelines with the ministry to make sure we have the dollars that we can use in the right time and in a way where we don't do just a blitz but it can continue over some period of time so our residents would have the KI pills."
"A significant area of Amherstburg would be impacted during a nuclear disaster," says Ahmed. "There are at least 250 homes that fall within the primary zone. If you add the Boblo Island, if you include all of that, it would be close to 300 homes that need potassium iodide pills pre-distributed."
Ahmed says they do have a supply in hand in the event of a Fermi 2 leak. "The province supplied, we already have those stock bottles of potassium iodide pills but that's for emergency use. So if there is, God forbid, an emergency right now those pills can be used for distribution."
Ahmed says the communities around the three nuclear plants in Ontario receive significant funding for emergency preparedness, including the KI pills.
He says Amherstburg is in sight of the Fermi 2 plant, but has not received anything from the province.