Thread: iodine treatment

when a person is exposed to nuclear fallout, is the purpose of giving them iodine to "flush out" the I-131 from their thyroid gland, or does it treat the I-131 exposure in another way?

I always thought that the reason was so that the radioactive iodine would not build up in the thyroid gland. I can't remember what my source is on this - but I know some where along the line I picked that up.