Belgium is to provide iodine pills to its entire population of around 11 million people to protect against radioactivity in case of a nuclear accident, the health minister was quoted as saying Thursday. The BBC reported that Health Minister Maggie De Block explained that the entire population will be issued with the pills, which protect against radiation in case of a nuclear threat, as a precaution following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. “Every country has updated its plans for a nuclear emergency”, the Health Minister told Belgian TV, but it is unclear what the similarities between Belgium’s nuclear safety and Japan’s disaster, which happened when an earthquake led to a tsunami and all three reactor cores largely melted down. Iodine pills, which help reduce radiation build-up in the thyroid gland, had previously only been given to people living within 20 kilometres (14 miles) of the Tihange and Doel nuclear plants. Health Minister Maggie De Block was quoted by La Libre Belgique newspaper as telling parliament that the range had now been expanded to 100 kilometres (60 miles), effectively covering the whole country. The head of Belgium’s French-speaking Green party, Jean-Marc Nollet, backed the measures but added that “just because everyone will