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SAN CLEMENTE — State officials plan to give potassium iodide tablets to more than 400,000 people living within 10 miles of two nuclear power plants that could protect the public if they are exposed to radiation. 

Pills will be given to 421,000 residents in northern San Diego County and southern Orange County who live near the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. About 22,000 residents who live near Diablo Canyon power plant in San Luis Obispo County also will receive the pills. 

The move comes six months after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission offered the pills to 34 states with nuclear power reactors. Only 11 states have passed out the pills to residents, while officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania have requested them. 

Officials said the preventive measures were given more consideration following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Although there have been no specific threats against any of the nation’s 103 nuclear plants, federal officials realize an attack or an accident could spread radioactive contamination over wide areas. 

Southern California Edison, which owns San Onofre’s two working 1,120-megawatt reactors, maintains that the plant is adequately protected. 

A study conducted 20 years ago showed that if the dome on one of San Onofre’s two reactors broke, it could result in 27,000 deaths within the year, and another 18,000 over the long-term. 

Potassium iodide pills do not protect people from all types of radiation poisoning. However, it can protect the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine if taken in the first four hours of exposure.