The government began sending potassium iodide tablets to households across the country for use in case Ireland is exposed to radioactive fallout from a terror attack or an accident at the British nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield, across the Irish Sea. The tablets prevent the thyroid gland from accumulating radioactive iodine, which was reported to have caused at least 2,000 cases of thyroid cancer after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Brian Lavery (NYT)