Bureaucratic red tape in Washington has left thousands of Bay Staters dangerously unprotected against lethal radiation that could leak from a terror strike or meltdown at local nuclear power plants, a Bay State congressman warned yesterday.

Congress approved a plan three years ago to distribute potassium iodide to residents nationwide living within 20 miles of a reactor, but the plan has stalled, prompting U.S. Rep. Edward Markey to fire off a terse letter to President Bush. Distribution of the pills, which are also known as KI pills, were part of the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act passed in 2002.

"We know that al-Qaeda has long considered nuclear power plants to be a potential target for future attacks," Markey (D-Malden) wrote yesterday to Bush. "It is now long past time for the final guidelines for potassium iodide stockpiling and distribution to be finished."

KI pills help absorb radiation and can thwart thyroid cancer if people take them soon after exposure. Studies have shown the pills could have severely reduced cancer caused by meltdowns at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

"How many more lessons do we have to learn?" asked Mary Lampert, spokeswoman for Pilgrim Watch, which monitors the Plymouth plant. "Hopefully, after (Hurricane) Katrina we would move in a proactive way on emergency planning and not wait until after the disaster has occurred and people have suffered."

In January 2002, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made pills available to 22 Massachusetts communities within 10 miles of Pilgrim, New Hampshire’s Seabrook power plant and Vermont Yankee, but the pills were only handed out upon request.

"Why has nothing been done? There is no reason we shouldn’t have this," she said.

Plymouth Fire Chief James Pierson said the department has pills for emergency workers but none for the general public.

According to Markey, the plan has stalled with federal health officials who have been slow to come up with a plan to distribute the pills to state and local governments.

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