Radioactive iodine treatment uses large doses of a form of iodine that's radioactive.
Radioactive iodine caused thousands of cases of thyroid cancer in children after the Chernobyl accident.
Radioactive iodine-131 and cesium-137 were also found in the drainage outlet of units 5 and 6.
Very low levels of radioactive iodine believed to be linked to the crippled plant have since been detected at Dounreay.
Most of the radioactive iodine leaves your body in your urine in the first few days after treatment.
The 39-year-old has been receiving radioactive iodine treatment since having a cyst and her thyroid gland removed in 2009.
Elevated levels of radioactive iodine have also been found in neighboring prefectures of Tochigi, Gunma, Niigata, Chiba and Saitama.
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Tokyo's governor recommended that babies be kept away from the city's tap water as it contained higher levels of radioactive iodine.
Because of the short half life of radioactive iodine (8 days), in a month or so the water should be fine again.
Radioactive iodine treatment comes as a capsule or liquid that you swallow.
What does that mean? 30 miles out, it would not be dangerous to come into contact with water with low radioactive iodine concentrations.
Radioactive iodine treatment may also be used to treat thyroid cancer that recurs after treatment or that spreads to other areas of the body.
With this therapy, you take radioactive iodine, or radioiodine, by mouth.
The radioactive iodine is taken up primarily by thyroid cells and thyroid cancer cells, so there's a low risk of harming other cells in your body.
And then the Soviet government did not tell people about the accident for days, during which time children drank locally produced milk, which contained the radioactive iodine.
Radioactive iodine treatment is often used after thyroidectomy to destroy any remaining healthy thyroid tissue, as well as microscopic areas of thyroid cancer that weren't removed during surgery.
The Chernobyl explosion spread radioactive iodine that was absorbed by cows and chickens and consumed by people in milk and eggs, says Linda Dahl, a head-and-neck specialist at The Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
For example, the new EPA guide refers to International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines that suggest intervention is not necessary until drinking water is contaminated with radioactive iodine 131 at a concentration of 81, 000 picocuries per liter.
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By April 6th TEPCO had managed to staunch the leakage of highly contaminated water from one of the damaged reactors that had produced levels of radioactive iodine 7.5m times the legal limit in one sample of seawater.
But the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety said that although small levels of radioactive iodine and caesium particles had been found in rain falling in part of the country, they were not enough to cause concern over public health.
Tokyo residents were warned on Wednesday not to give tap water to babies less than a year old because levels of radioactive iodine - which can cause thyroid cancer - are twice the recommended safe level in some areas of the city.
The danger from nuclear waste comes mainly from dust-like particles containing radioactive isotopes of iodine, cesium and strontium that could be released if the reactor fuel is allowed to become too hot.
And, almost all of the radioactive material released was iodine-131, associated with thyroid cancer, which is one of the slowest growing and least deadly cancers.
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Also 230, 000 doses of iodine have been distributed to evacuation centers as a first line of defense against airborne radioactive poisoning of the thyroid, a common concern in these situations.
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