If you live near one of Ontario's three nuclear plants, you may need to make some room in your medicine cabinet as you're likely going to be getting some anti-radiation pills in case of a nuclear accident.

Canada's Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) thinks residents living within 10 kilometres of the country's four nuclear plants should have anti-radiation pills in their cabinets.

The Potassium Iodide tablets could be life saving in case of a leak, keeping deadly radiation from entering people's thyroid glands.

Other countries - even other provinces - distribute the pills, but not in Ontario where nuclear producers have been fighting the idea.

Frank Saunders is Bruce Power’s vice president of nuclear oversight and regulatory affairs and say, "There's about 1,000 residents in our 10 kilometre radius. So either pre-distribution or post-distribution is pretty feasible in our world. The key thing is to have a feasible way of doing it in case of an emergency."

There are 25,000 anti-radiation pills ready for distribution at the Kincardine Emergency Management headquarters, but the CNSC feels it’s better for the pills to be in people’s cupboards before there’s a problem because distributing during a disaster isn’t easy.

Michael Binder, CNSC president, says, “We’ve been talking about this for a long time. The KI pills should be distributed to the home.”

Al Babineau is Bruce Power’s closest neighbour, living three kilometres from the front gates. He’s not worried about his safety living so close to the world’s largest nuclear plant and isn’t eager to have anti-radiation pills in his home.

"I don't think it's necessary, but if they give them to me I'll put them in the house and that's as far as I'd go with it."

Paul Candiago lives five kilometres from Bruce Power and says, "It’s a good precaution, a simple solution with some instructions for people on how to use. It sounds good to me."

But Saunders believes there are better ways to keep their neighbours safe, 44 newly installed radiation detectors in and around Bruce Power are part of their evolving safety plan.

"This fall we're working on our siren system, but we’re also testing things like auto-dialing and text messaging to make sure that we can get in touch with people in a variety of ways in case of a problem."

The pill plan still needs provincial approval, but with the CNSC's public urging the pills could be in people’s homes as soon as year's end.