Los Angeles is prepping for a possible nuclear strike from North Korea. I'm not one of those paranoid types, but I might buy a few boxes of potassium iodide for myself & each one of my family members if I was living on the West Coast. It prevents radioactive fallout from entering the thyroid and causing thyroid cancer. The US govt stockpiles this stuff, but don't expect them to be handing it out in an emergency, and if you were down wind of a strike, they might not think to give it to you. Children are especially vulnerable to that risk in a nuclear event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_iodide#Nuclear_accidents
* Duck and cover 2.0: How North Korea is prompting new efforts to prepare for a nuclear attack - Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nuclear-attack-preparations-20170725-story.html (Backup link: https://archive.is/fWW2H )
It's one of the few preventative measures you can take, aside from building a fallout shelter or bunker like people did in the 50s & 60s. I had an ex-gf who's house had an old nuclear bunker from a previous occupant, and they just used it as an extra storage space.
A company called Anbex makes the only potassium iodide that the government uses and buys up for stockpiles. Potassium iodide is basically just potassium bound to an iodine molecule, and you could take it for general health if you were low on iodine for some reason. But, if you use a salt shaker like most people, you're probably getting enough iodine. (Always buy iodonized salt. There's no reason not too, and most multivitamins don't include iodine for that reason.)
You can pick up a box of Anbex iOSTAT potassium iodide for only around $10 on Amazon. They have an expiration date of 2023: http://amzn.to/2uE9QhK
If you're a survivalist, you can keep them next to your Cipro supply for an anthrax attack, Atropine and pralidoxime chloride (2-PAM Cl) for a sarin gas attack, and Hydroxycobalamin for a cyanide poisoning. Sleep tight!
You can also view a map of how close you are to a nuclear power plant on the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's website:
https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/
There is always the possibility of a Three mile island type incident, although we as a country really should be looking to nuclear power as an alternative to coal and fossil fuels. If we're going to try and ween ourselves off of gas burning cars, we need something to power the huge batteries in them, and not everyone can put solar panels on their roofs yet, like Elon Musk wants us to do. Although I am very intrigued by his "Powerwall" idea, which solar panels charging a large battery that basically takes you off the grid of needing to purchase electricity, and simply storing your own.
* Tesla Powerwall: the complete review - Energysage.com: http://www.energysage.com/solar/solar-energy-storage/tesla-powerwall-home-battery/
A case can be made for a new type of nuclear plant that uses what's known as a "pebble bed reactor" which uses graphite pebbles that pull much more energy from them than the old plutonium/uranium rods dipped in water method.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble-bed_reactor
Making Safe Nuclear Power from Thorium | Thomas Jam Pedersen | TEDxCopenhagen - https://youtu.be/tHO1ebNxhVI
The fight to rethink (and reinvent) nuclear power - https://youtu.be/poPLSgbSO6k
Anyway, you can read more about Anbex's iOSTAT potassium iodide, including the dosage and so forth, here: http://www.anbex.com/potassium-iodide/
