Saugeen Ojibway Nation could stop nuclear waste dump on Lake Huron
[ http://canadians.org/blog/saugeen-ojibw ... lake-huron ]
May 7, 2015 - 9:24am
A federal panel has approved a proposed low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste disposal site near Lake Huron. If the project is approved by the Harper government, nuclear waste that is considered hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years would be stored just hundreds of metres from the Great Lakes, the source of drinking water for about 40 million people in two countries.
The Toronto Star reports, "A federal panel has given an overall seal of approval to the controversial nuclear waste disposal site proposed for a subterranean crypt below the Bruce nuclear station near Kincardine, Ont. ...The panel’s favourable view of the project, proposed by Ontario Power Generation [OPG], overcomes a major regulatory hurdle in the construction of the Deep Geologic Repository, or DGR in industry jargon... OPG proposes to bury 200,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from its nuclear power plants in a thick layer of limestone 680 metres below ground, about a kilometre from Lake Huron." [ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -site.html ]
The article adds, "Overall, the report says, the risk posed by a nuclear waste site is much less of a threat to the Great Lakes than numerous other factors, including invasive species, climate change and other forms of pollution. 'The Panel is of the view that the relative position of the proposed project within the spectrum of risks to the Great Lakes is a minor one, albeit one that demands strict attention and regulation', it said."
In about four months time - so around early-September, just prior to the October 19 election - federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq could approve the project.
Construction of the DGR could begin in 2018 and it could be in service by 2025.
In terms of our hope to stop this from happening, the article highlights, "Environmental approval is not all the project needs, however. OPG says it will not go ahead with the project over the objections of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, in whose traditional territory the site lies. Talks are continuing, but Saugeen has not yet given its agreement."
In August 2013, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow met with Randall Kahgee, the previous Chief of the Saugeen First Nation. He was very much opposed to storing nuclear waste near water. He has stated, "Without it we are lost. We are being told something, the water is speaking to us, the question is, are we listening? We have to be the voice of the generation to come. [They'll ask] what efforts or steps did we take to protect what is most vital to each and every one of us?"
Barlow and the Council of Canadians will soon be sharing their concerns about the proposed DGR with the current Saugeen First Nation Chief Vernon Roote.
We are calling for the Great Lakes to be declared a commons, public trust and protected bio-region. In the report titled Our Great Lakes Commons: A People’s Plan to Protect the Great Lakes Forever, [ http://canadians.org/content/report-our ... es-forever ] Barlow highlighted the threat that nuclear power poses to the Great Lakes. She has also commented, "I don’t know how to say this other than this is an act of insanity, this would be a crime against future generations, this is a crime against nature. We know what’s in this nuclear waste... and to even conceive burying it within one kilometre of these lakes is absolutely the most terrible idea I can think of."
Further reading
Opposition forms against nuclear waste dump on Lake Huron (April 2011 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/node/7243 ]
Nuclear waste repository is a serious threat to the Great Lakes, warns Council of Canadians (May 2011 media release)
[ http://canadians.org/media/water/2011/16-May-11.html ]
Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
BARLOW: Act of Insanity-nuke waste dump 1 mi from L. Huron
3 posts
• Page 1 of 1
BARLOW: Act of Insanity-nuke waste dump 1 mi from L. Huron
by Oscar » Thu May 07, 2015 3:12 pm
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9966
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
Re: BARLOW: Act of Insanity-nuke waste dump 1 mi from L. Hur
by Oscar » Thu May 07, 2015 7:41 pm
Beyond Nuclear decries Canadian radioactive waste dump on Great Lakes shore, vows intensified resistance
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/canada/201 ... on-gr.html ]
- -
Media Statement by Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps,
[ http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/3 ... 2I552Ms%3D ]
For Immediate Release, May 6, 2015
Contact: Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, (240) 462-3216
Media Statement by Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, re: today’s Canadian federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) submission of its Environmental Assessment Report, on the proposed radioactive waste dump targeted at the Great Lakes shore, to the Canadian federal Minister of the Environment:
“Beyond Nuclear joins with a growing groundswell of environmental and public interest groups, concerned residents, and governmental bodies across the Great Lakes Basin, in both the U.S. and Canada, to continue decrying the proposal by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to bury radioactive wastes on the Lake Huron shore, at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario.
The Great Lakes is the drinking water supply for 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations. The Great Lakes, 20% of the world’s surface fresh water, and close to 90% of North America’s, is the lifeblood of one of the world’s largest regional economies. As shown by the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear catastrophes, OPG’s proposed radioactive waste dump would put the Great Lakes, and its residents, at risk of radioactive ruination forevermore. This is entirely unacceptable on its face.
As unsafe as a dump on the Great Lakes shore for so-called “low” and “intermediate” level radioactive wastes from 20 reactors across Ontario already is, we fear a bait and switch. Opponents have already had to force OPG to reveal its secretive plans to double the dump’s already monstrous capacity, to take decommissioning wastes after reactor shutdowns across Ontario.
We also fear the remaining proposals in the Bruce area for Canada’s national high-level radioactive waste dump. How much sense would it make to build two deep geologic repositories (DGRs), for different purposes, in the same vicinity? Although OPG optimistically claims its first DGR would only cost some billions to construct and operate, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) most recent estimate for the price tag at the since-cancelled Yucca Mountain, Nevada DGR was close to $100 billion. And the 2014 explosion of a single barrel, and consequent radioactivity release underground and to the surface environment, at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico – which OPG modeled its DGR after – will cost many hundreds of millions of dollars, and perhaps even a billion dollars, to address.
OPG’s insane proposal is a declaration of war against the Great Lakes. If the Canadian federal government decides to support and approve this incredibly risky scheme, our bi-national grassroots coalition will intensify its resistance, as it has done for well over a decade. We commend the 154 municipalities, across all eight U.S. Great Lakes states, as well as Ontario, which have passed resolutions opposing OPG’s ill-advised Great Lakes radioactive waste dump. And we urge all Americans to contact their U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative, to urge their support for bipartisan resolutions in the U.S. Congress expressing strong opposition to OPG’s DGR, and calling upon President Obama to take action against it.”
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future.
Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.
Beyond Nuclear
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400,
Takoma Park, MD 20912
Tel: 301.270.2209
Fax: 301.270.4000
Email: info@beyondnuclear.org
Web: http://www.beyondnuclear.org
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/canada/201 ... on-gr.html ]
- -
Media Statement by Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps,
[ http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/3 ... 2I552Ms%3D ]
For Immediate Release, May 6, 2015
Contact: Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, (240) 462-3216
Media Statement by Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, re: today’s Canadian federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) submission of its Environmental Assessment Report, on the proposed radioactive waste dump targeted at the Great Lakes shore, to the Canadian federal Minister of the Environment:
“Beyond Nuclear joins with a growing groundswell of environmental and public interest groups, concerned residents, and governmental bodies across the Great Lakes Basin, in both the U.S. and Canada, to continue decrying the proposal by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to bury radioactive wastes on the Lake Huron shore, at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario.
The Great Lakes is the drinking water supply for 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations. The Great Lakes, 20% of the world’s surface fresh water, and close to 90% of North America’s, is the lifeblood of one of the world’s largest regional economies. As shown by the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear catastrophes, OPG’s proposed radioactive waste dump would put the Great Lakes, and its residents, at risk of radioactive ruination forevermore. This is entirely unacceptable on its face.
As unsafe as a dump on the Great Lakes shore for so-called “low” and “intermediate” level radioactive wastes from 20 reactors across Ontario already is, we fear a bait and switch. Opponents have already had to force OPG to reveal its secretive plans to double the dump’s already monstrous capacity, to take decommissioning wastes after reactor shutdowns across Ontario.
We also fear the remaining proposals in the Bruce area for Canada’s national high-level radioactive waste dump. How much sense would it make to build two deep geologic repositories (DGRs), for different purposes, in the same vicinity? Although OPG optimistically claims its first DGR would only cost some billions to construct and operate, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) most recent estimate for the price tag at the since-cancelled Yucca Mountain, Nevada DGR was close to $100 billion. And the 2014 explosion of a single barrel, and consequent radioactivity release underground and to the surface environment, at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico – which OPG modeled its DGR after – will cost many hundreds of millions of dollars, and perhaps even a billion dollars, to address.
OPG’s insane proposal is a declaration of war against the Great Lakes. If the Canadian federal government decides to support and approve this incredibly risky scheme, our bi-national grassroots coalition will intensify its resistance, as it has done for well over a decade. We commend the 154 municipalities, across all eight U.S. Great Lakes states, as well as Ontario, which have passed resolutions opposing OPG’s ill-advised Great Lakes radioactive waste dump. And we urge all Americans to contact their U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative, to urge their support for bipartisan resolutions in the U.S. Congress expressing strong opposition to OPG’s DGR, and calling upon President Obama to take action against it.”
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future.
Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.
Beyond Nuclear
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400,
Takoma Park, MD 20912
Tel: 301.270.2209
Fax: 301.270.4000
Email: info@beyondnuclear.org
Web: http://www.beyondnuclear.org
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9966
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
Re: BARLOW: Act of Insanity-nuke waste dump 1 mi from L. Hur
by Oscar » Sun May 10, 2015 9:20 am
LISTEN: Gordon Edwards interviewed on Nuclear vs Renewables and the Lake Huron Nuclear Waste Dump (SEE BACKGROUND below . . .)
[ https://greenmajoritymedia.wordpress.co ... rom-taxes/ ]
May 8, 2015
Gordon Edwards is President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (http://www.ccnr.org )
++++++++++++++++
BACKGROUND:
Saugeen Ojibway Nation could stop nuclear waste dump on Lake Huron
[ http://canadians.org/blog/saugeen-ojibw ... lake-huron ]
May 7, 2015 - 9:24 am
A federal panel has approved a proposed low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste disposal site near Lake Huron. If the project is approved by the Harper government, nuclear waste that is considered hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years would be stored just hundreds of metres from the Great Lakes, the source of drinking water for about 40 million people in two countries.
The Toronto Star reports, "A federal panel has given an overall seal of approval to the controversial nuclear waste disposal site proposed for a subterranean crypt below the Bruce nuclear station near Kincardine, Ont. ...The panel’s favourable view of the project, proposed by Ontario Power Generation [OPG], overcomes a major regulatory hurdle in the construction of the Deep Geologic Repository, or DGR in industry jargon... OPG proposes to bury 200,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from its nuclear power plants in a thick layer of limestone 680 metres below ground, about a kilometre from Lake Huron."
[ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -site.html ]
The article adds, "Overall, the report says, the risk posed by a nuclear waste site is much less of a threat to the Great Lakes than numerous other factors, including invasive species, climate change and other forms of pollution. 'The Panel is of the view that the relative position of the proposed project within the spectrum of risks to the Great Lakes is a minor one, albeit one that demands strict attention and regulation', it said."
In about four months time - so around early-September, just prior to the October 19 election - federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq could approve the project.
Construction of the DGR could begin in 2018 and it could be in service by 2025.
In terms of our hope to stop this from happening, the article highlights, "Environmental approval is not all the project needs, however. OPG says it will not go ahead with the project over the objections of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, in whose traditional territory the site lies. Talks are continuing, but Saugeen has not yet given its agreement."
In August 2013, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow met with Randall Kahgee, the previous Chief of the Saugeen First Nation. He was very much opposed to storing nuclear waste near water. He has stated, "Without it we are lost. We are being told something, the water is speaking to us, the question is, are we listening? We have to be the voice of the generation to come. [They'll ask] what efforts or steps did we take to protect what is most vital to each and every one of us?"
Barlow and the Council of Canadians will soon be sharing their concerns about the proposed DGR with the current Saugeen First Nation Chief Vernon Roote.
We are calling for the Great Lakes to be declared a commons, public trust and protected bio-region. In the report titled Our Great Lakes Commons: A People’s Plan to Protect the Great Lakes Forever, [ http://canadians.org/sites/default/file ... ar2011.pdf ], Barlow highlighted the threat that nuclear power poses to the Great Lakes. She has also commented, "I don’t know how to say this other than this is an act of insanity, this would be a crime against future generations, this is a crime against nature. We know what’s in this nuclear waste... and to even conceive burying it within one kilometre of these lakes is absolutely the most terrible idea I can think of."
Further reading
Opposition forms against nuclear waste dump on Lake Huron (April 2011 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/node/7243 ]
Nuclear waste repository is a serious threat to the Great Lakes, warns Council of Canadians (May 2011 media release)
[ http://canadians.org/media/water/2011/16-May-11.html ]
Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
++++++++++++++++
Saugeen Ojibway First Nation (SON) opposes DGR recommendation
[ http://tinyurl.com/nlq66p3 ]
By Rob Gowan, Sun Times, Owen Sound, May 7, 2015
The Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) is not in agreement with the Joint Review Panel's recommendation to proceed with a plan to bury nuclear waste deep under Bruce County.
And Ontario Power Generation (OPG), the proponents of the proposed project to bury low- and intermediate-level waste at the site, continue to insist that SON approval is necessary for the project to proceed.
"Of course we are opposed to it," Saugeen First Nation chief Vernon Roote said on Thursday. "In our community that I represent, called Saugeen First Nation, there are no members that are agreeable to the burial at the site at this time."
. . . SNIP - - - -
Roote said he respects the work the joint panel has done, but still has concerns about an accident happening there in the future.
"If something were to happen with the disposal or the leakage of nuclear waste I wouldn't want to be drinking the water downstream," said Roote.
"That means the balance of Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and also anyone drinking from those lakes, even into the U.S.A."
Roote said that while the risk to people today may be low, he said it is future generations that he is more concerned about.
"Just don't have any grandchildren, don't have any children, because the potential danger for them is going to get higher and higher as time runs out on the nuclear waste," said Roote. "As the future years get closer to the end lifespan of the storage, what is going to happen to the ground, what is going to happen to it seeping into the ground."
Roote said they have a document signed by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization and a guarantee from OPG that the project will not proceed without SON's approval and they plan to hold them to it.
"It is part and parcel of the commitment that has been given to our community that the burial will not continue until there is consensus from our community and we
will not give consensus at this time," said Roote. "I cannot convince the people at the moment that this is a good venture for them."
Roote said many more discussions will have to take place, and he does not yet know what it would take to convince the people of Saugeen First Nation that the proposal is safe.
"We understand that the Bruce nuclear plant needs to exist in order to produce energy," said Roote. "But the danger it has in its hands called nuclear waste needs to be addressed."
OPG spokesperson Neal Kelly said OPG has always said it is developing the DGR with one goal in mind and that is to create "permanent and safe storage" for Ontario's low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste.
"We are pleased with the panel's conclusions that the project will safely protect the environment," said Kelly.
He said OPG will continue to hold discussions with SON to secure their support.
MORE:
[ http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2015/0 ... mmendation ]
+++++++++++++++++
Kincardine nuclear waste site gets federal seal of approval
[ http://tinyurl.com/nl6yp2w ]
Deep Geologic Repository proposed by Ontario Power Generation at its Bruce site is 'not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects,' report concludes.
By: John Spears Business reporter, Lauren Pelley Staff Reporter, Toronto Star, Wed May 06 2015
A sign marks the spot near Kincardine, Ont., where OPG wants to build its Deep Geological Repository for storing nuclear waster 680 metres underground. The plan was given the federal seal of approval Wednesday.A federal panel has given an overall seal of approval to the controversial nuclear waste disposal site proposed for a subterranean crypt below the Bruce nuclear station near Kincardine, Ont.
"The Panel concludes that the project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects" given the measures contemplated to curb them, says the report by the Joint Review Panel.The panel's favourable view of the project, proposed by Ontario Power Generation, overcomes a major regulatory hurdle in the construction of the Deep Geologic Repository, or DGR in industry jargon, which would see nuclear waste buried hundreds of metres underground near the shore of Lake Huron.
Supporters and opponents 'there are 152 communities opposed to the project, including Toronto and Chicago' were poring over the report after it was released late Wednesday, examining closely the conditions that the panel says should be imposed before the project can proceed.
OPG released a brief statement saying it is generally pleased with the report.
"OPG developed the DGR with one goal in mind: to create permanent, safe storage for Ontario's low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste," said senior vice-president Laurie Swami. "We are pleased with the Panel's conclusion that the project will safely protect the environment."
However, environmentalists in Canada and the U.S. are likely to step up their opposition. Dozens of municipal councils around the Great Lakes are on record against it. Resolutions have also been presented in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
Beverly Fernandez, of Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, said late Wednesday that based on a perusal of the report�s executive summary, she was 'deeply disappointed' by its recommendations.
"The last place to bury and abandon radioactive nuclear waste is beside the largest body of fresh water in the world," said Fernandez.
OPG proposes to bury 200,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from its nuclear power plants in a thick layer of limestone 680 metres below ground, about a kilometre from Lake Huron. The company says the rock is so solid and stable it will contain any possible leakage of harmful radioactivity.
MORE:
[ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -site.html ]
+++++++++++++
BEYOND NUCLEAR: Media Statement by Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps,
News from Beyond Nuclear For Immediate Release, May 6, 2015
[ http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/3 ... FW3wNR0%3D ]
re: today's Canadian federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) Environmental Assessment Report, on the proposed radioactive waste dump targeted at the Great Lakes shore, submitted to the Canadian Minister of the Environment [ http://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/document ... ent=101589 ]
“Beyond Nuclear joins with a growing groundswell of environmental and public interest groups, concerned residents, and governmental bodies across the Great Lakes Basin, in both the U.S. and Canada, to continue decrying the proposal by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to bury radioactive wastes on the Lake Huron shore, at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario.
The Great Lakes is the drinking water supply for 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations. The Great Lakes, containing 20% of the world’s surface fresh water, and close to 90% of North America’s, is the lifeblood of one of the world’s largest regional economies. As shown by the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear catastrophes, OPG’s proposed radioactive waste dump would put the Great Lakes, and its residents, at risk of radioactive ruination forevermore. This is entirely unacceptable on its face.
As unsafe as a dump on the Great Lakes shore for so-called “low” and “intermediate” level radioactive wastes from 20 reactors across Ontario already is, we fear a bait and switch. Opponents have already had to force OPG to reveal its secretive plans to double the dump’s already monstrous capacity, to take decommissioning wastes after reactor shutdowns across Ontario.
We also fear the remaining proposals in the Bruce area for Canada’s national high-level radioactive waste dump. How much sense would it make to build two deep geologic repositories (DGRs), for different purposes, in the same vicinity? Although OPG optimistically claims its first DGR would only cost some billions to construct and operate, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) most recent estimate for the price tag at the since-cancelled Yucca Mountain, Nevada DGR was close to $100 billion. And the 2014 explosion of a single barrel, and consequent radioactivity release underground and to the surface environment, at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico – which OPG modeled its DGR after – will cost many hundreds of millions of dollars, and perhaps even a billion dollars, to address.
OPG’s insane proposal is a declaration of war against the Great Lakes. If the Canadian federal government decides to support and approve this incredibly risky scheme, our bi-national grassroots coalition will intensify its resistance, as it has done for well over a decade. We commend the 154 municipalities, across all eight U.S. Great Lakes states, as well as Ontario,which have passed resolutions opposing OPG’s ill-advised Great Lakes radioactive waste dump.
And we urge all Americans to contact their U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative, to urge their support for bipartisan resolutions in the U.S. Congress expressing strong opposition to OPG’s DGR, and calling upon President Obama to take action against it.” - 30 -
Contact: Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, (240) 462-3216
Kevin Kamps
Radioactive Waste Watchdog
Beyond Nuclear
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400
Takoma Park, Maryland 20912
Office: (301) 270-2209 ext. 1
Cell: (240) 462-3216
Fax: (301) 270-4000
kevin@beyondnuclear.org
http://www.beyondnuclear.org
Kamps also serves as a board member of Don't Waste Michigan, representing the Kalamazoo Chapter.
--
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.
++++++++++++
Urge President Obama to oppose burial of TransCanada's radioactive wastes on Great Lakes shore!
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... adioa.html ]
February 25, 2015
Successful resistance to TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sands crude oil pipeline must now shift to fend off the dumping of TransCanada's radioactive wastes on the Great Lakes shore!
As reported by the Associated Press, on Feb. 24th, President Obama vetoed Senate Bill 1, which would have rushed the immediate construction of TransCanada Pipelines' Keystone XL tar sands crude oil pipeline. Our friends and colleagues at 350.org called for a rapid response action at the White House, at 5 pm, just hours after the veto. As we have many times in the past -- on tar sands, fracking, and other environmental issues -- Beyond Nuclear answered the call, and stood in solidarity with our allies. We have also joined a unity statement with a large number of other groups, calling on President Obama to reject TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline once and for all.
- - - -
TransCanada and other partners took over the operations at Bruce NGS in 2002, after its previous operator, British Energy, went bankrupt. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) actually owns Bruce NGS, but TransCanada Pipelines and its partners lease and operate the reactors. Thus, TransCanada Pipelines has been responsible for generating radioactive waste there for more than a dozen years already, with many more years, or even decades, of radioactive waste generation planned in the future. (Emphasis Added. Ed.) [ . . . ]
+++++++++++++++++
Illinois speaks out against Canadian Great Lakes shoreline radioactive waste dump proposal
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... ine-r.html ]
February 11, 2015
Today, DuPage County, the second most populous in Illinois, announced the passage of a resolution in opposition to the proposal by nuclear utility Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to bury radioactive wastes from 20 atomic reactors across the province at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, on the Lake Huron shore in Kincardine, ON. [ . . . ]
+++++++++++++
Cook County, Illinois Joins Call to Stop Proposed Nuclear Waste Dump beside the Great Lakes
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... r-was.html ]
October 9, 2014
As shared by Dave Kraft, Executive Director of Nuclear Energy Information Service in Chicago (Cook County), Illinois: "We share this important good news that the Cook County Board unanimously passed a resolution in support of banning the construction of a low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal facility on the shore of Lake Huron on the Bruce Peninsula in Canada. [ . . . ]
++++++++++++++++
Dr. Frank Greening's closing remarks to DGR JRP
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... r-jrp.html ]
October 9, 2014
Dr. Frank Greening, a scientist who worked at Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and its predecessor (Ontario Hydro) for decades, has submitted his closing comments to the Canadian federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) overseeing the Environmental Assessment (EA) on the proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR). Closing comments are due on October 9, 2014.
The DGR would be located at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station (NGS), on the shore of Lake Huron in Kincardine, Ontario, Canada. It would bury all of Ontario's so-called "low-level" and "intermediate-level" radioactive wastes (L&ILRWs), from 20 reactors across the province.
Dr. Greening, whose previous submissions to the JRP have revealed major underestimates by OPG and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regarding such basic issues as the radioactivity content of the waste, has here focused on two mass-exposure accidents at OPG (and Ontario Hydro's) commercial nuclear facilities: 55 workers exposed to internal Carbon-14 contamination at Pickering NGS in March, 1985; and 557 workers exposed to internal alpha-particle contamination at Bruce NGS in November and December, 2009.
Greening argues that those accidents, as well as the February, 2014 radioactivity release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, should serve as a serious warning against rushing ahead with this ill-considered DGR proposal.
Greening ends with this powerful conclusion:
What concerns me most about the proposed DGR is OPG’s level of ignorance about its size, about its radionuclide inventory, about how it will operate and about the potential for things to go horribly wrong through unexpected synergisms, as in the tragic Lac Mégantic disaster where a combination of relatively minor problems led to a major catastrophe. It is quite evident that OPG’s DGR proposal is based on only a pretense of knowledge of all possible risks within the proposed facility. As a result OPG ignores true uncertainty, as defined by U.S. economist F.H. Knight, which is something that is not susceptible to measurement and can never be eliminated from
human endeavor. Or as J.M. Keynes eloquently described it: “... matters where there is no scientific basis on which to form any calculable probability whatever. We simply do not know.”
Therefore I strongly urge the JRP to reject OPG’s DGR proposal. We know so very little about the long-term safety of a DGR and the American experience with the WIPP facility shows why we should err on the side of caution before proceeding with such a venture. After all, it took only one bad waste container to spoil an entire DGR facility! And besides, it is evident that a lot more research and development is needed before DGR technology could be declared to be safe and reliable. But in the meantime, we certainly do not need the existing WWMF [Bruce NGS's Western Waste Management Facility] to become home to a deep underground nuclear waste disposal test-bed on the shores of Lake Huron. Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread....".
++++++++++++++++
Grassroots opposition to Canada's Great Lakes radioactive waste dump gaining traction at state and federal level!
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... e-was.html ]
September 24, 2014
Ontario Power Generation proposes to bury "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes from 20 reactors across the province at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station on the Lake Huron shore. The Great Lakes comprise 95% of North America's surface fresh water, providing drinking water to 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.
As reported by the News Herald, an effort to block Canada's proposed radioactive waste dump on the Great Lakes shoreline -- initiated by Ed McArdle of the Sierra Club's South East Michigan Group -- first succeed at the state level, and has now moved into the federal realm. At the state level, Ed's Michigan State Senator, Hoon-yung Hopgood (D-Taylor), introduced a resolution opposing the dump that past the State Senate by a unanimous vote. At the federal level, Michigan and New York Democrats have introduced a congressional resolution opposing the dump in the U.S. House; a bipartisan resolution has likewise been introduced in the U.S. Senate. [ . . . ]
+++++++++++++++++
MORE INFORMATION:
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ]
[ https://greenmajoritymedia.wordpress.co ... rom-taxes/ ]
May 8, 2015
Gordon Edwards is President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (http://www.ccnr.org )
++++++++++++++++
BACKGROUND:
Saugeen Ojibway Nation could stop nuclear waste dump on Lake Huron
[ http://canadians.org/blog/saugeen-ojibw ... lake-huron ]
May 7, 2015 - 9:24 am
A federal panel has approved a proposed low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste disposal site near Lake Huron. If the project is approved by the Harper government, nuclear waste that is considered hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years would be stored just hundreds of metres from the Great Lakes, the source of drinking water for about 40 million people in two countries.
The Toronto Star reports, "A federal panel has given an overall seal of approval to the controversial nuclear waste disposal site proposed for a subterranean crypt below the Bruce nuclear station near Kincardine, Ont. ...The panel’s favourable view of the project, proposed by Ontario Power Generation [OPG], overcomes a major regulatory hurdle in the construction of the Deep Geologic Repository, or DGR in industry jargon... OPG proposes to bury 200,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from its nuclear power plants in a thick layer of limestone 680 metres below ground, about a kilometre from Lake Huron."
[ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -site.html ]
The article adds, "Overall, the report says, the risk posed by a nuclear waste site is much less of a threat to the Great Lakes than numerous other factors, including invasive species, climate change and other forms of pollution. 'The Panel is of the view that the relative position of the proposed project within the spectrum of risks to the Great Lakes is a minor one, albeit one that demands strict attention and regulation', it said."
In about four months time - so around early-September, just prior to the October 19 election - federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq could approve the project.
Construction of the DGR could begin in 2018 and it could be in service by 2025.
In terms of our hope to stop this from happening, the article highlights, "Environmental approval is not all the project needs, however. OPG says it will not go ahead with the project over the objections of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, in whose traditional territory the site lies. Talks are continuing, but Saugeen has not yet given its agreement."
In August 2013, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow met with Randall Kahgee, the previous Chief of the Saugeen First Nation. He was very much opposed to storing nuclear waste near water. He has stated, "Without it we are lost. We are being told something, the water is speaking to us, the question is, are we listening? We have to be the voice of the generation to come. [They'll ask] what efforts or steps did we take to protect what is most vital to each and every one of us?"
Barlow and the Council of Canadians will soon be sharing their concerns about the proposed DGR with the current Saugeen First Nation Chief Vernon Roote.
We are calling for the Great Lakes to be declared a commons, public trust and protected bio-region. In the report titled Our Great Lakes Commons: A People’s Plan to Protect the Great Lakes Forever, [ http://canadians.org/sites/default/file ... ar2011.pdf ], Barlow highlighted the threat that nuclear power poses to the Great Lakes. She has also commented, "I don’t know how to say this other than this is an act of insanity, this would be a crime against future generations, this is a crime against nature. We know what’s in this nuclear waste... and to even conceive burying it within one kilometre of these lakes is absolutely the most terrible idea I can think of."
Further reading
Opposition forms against nuclear waste dump on Lake Huron (April 2011 blog)
[ http://canadians.org/node/7243 ]
Nuclear waste repository is a serious threat to the Great Lakes, warns Council of Canadians (May 2011 media release)
[ http://canadians.org/media/water/2011/16-May-11.html ]
Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
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Saugeen Ojibway First Nation (SON) opposes DGR recommendation
[ http://tinyurl.com/nlq66p3 ]
By Rob Gowan, Sun Times, Owen Sound, May 7, 2015
The Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) is not in agreement with the Joint Review Panel's recommendation to proceed with a plan to bury nuclear waste deep under Bruce County.
And Ontario Power Generation (OPG), the proponents of the proposed project to bury low- and intermediate-level waste at the site, continue to insist that SON approval is necessary for the project to proceed.
"Of course we are opposed to it," Saugeen First Nation chief Vernon Roote said on Thursday. "In our community that I represent, called Saugeen First Nation, there are no members that are agreeable to the burial at the site at this time."
. . . SNIP - - - -
Roote said he respects the work the joint panel has done, but still has concerns about an accident happening there in the future.
"If something were to happen with the disposal or the leakage of nuclear waste I wouldn't want to be drinking the water downstream," said Roote.
"That means the balance of Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and also anyone drinking from those lakes, even into the U.S.A."
Roote said that while the risk to people today may be low, he said it is future generations that he is more concerned about.
"Just don't have any grandchildren, don't have any children, because the potential danger for them is going to get higher and higher as time runs out on the nuclear waste," said Roote. "As the future years get closer to the end lifespan of the storage, what is going to happen to the ground, what is going to happen to it seeping into the ground."
Roote said they have a document signed by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization and a guarantee from OPG that the project will not proceed without SON's approval and they plan to hold them to it.
"It is part and parcel of the commitment that has been given to our community that the burial will not continue until there is consensus from our community and we
will not give consensus at this time," said Roote. "I cannot convince the people at the moment that this is a good venture for them."
Roote said many more discussions will have to take place, and he does not yet know what it would take to convince the people of Saugeen First Nation that the proposal is safe.
"We understand that the Bruce nuclear plant needs to exist in order to produce energy," said Roote. "But the danger it has in its hands called nuclear waste needs to be addressed."
OPG spokesperson Neal Kelly said OPG has always said it is developing the DGR with one goal in mind and that is to create "permanent and safe storage" for Ontario's low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste.
"We are pleased with the panel's conclusions that the project will safely protect the environment," said Kelly.
He said OPG will continue to hold discussions with SON to secure their support.
MORE:
[ http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2015/0 ... mmendation ]
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Kincardine nuclear waste site gets federal seal of approval
[ http://tinyurl.com/nl6yp2w ]
Deep Geologic Repository proposed by Ontario Power Generation at its Bruce site is 'not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects,' report concludes.
By: John Spears Business reporter, Lauren Pelley Staff Reporter, Toronto Star, Wed May 06 2015
A sign marks the spot near Kincardine, Ont., where OPG wants to build its Deep Geological Repository for storing nuclear waster 680 metres underground. The plan was given the federal seal of approval Wednesday.A federal panel has given an overall seal of approval to the controversial nuclear waste disposal site proposed for a subterranean crypt below the Bruce nuclear station near Kincardine, Ont.
"The Panel concludes that the project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects" given the measures contemplated to curb them, says the report by the Joint Review Panel.The panel's favourable view of the project, proposed by Ontario Power Generation, overcomes a major regulatory hurdle in the construction of the Deep Geologic Repository, or DGR in industry jargon, which would see nuclear waste buried hundreds of metres underground near the shore of Lake Huron.
Supporters and opponents 'there are 152 communities opposed to the project, including Toronto and Chicago' were poring over the report after it was released late Wednesday, examining closely the conditions that the panel says should be imposed before the project can proceed.
OPG released a brief statement saying it is generally pleased with the report.
"OPG developed the DGR with one goal in mind: to create permanent, safe storage for Ontario's low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste," said senior vice-president Laurie Swami. "We are pleased with the Panel's conclusion that the project will safely protect the environment."
However, environmentalists in Canada and the U.S. are likely to step up their opposition. Dozens of municipal councils around the Great Lakes are on record against it. Resolutions have also been presented in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
Beverly Fernandez, of Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, said late Wednesday that based on a perusal of the report�s executive summary, she was 'deeply disappointed' by its recommendations.
"The last place to bury and abandon radioactive nuclear waste is beside the largest body of fresh water in the world," said Fernandez.
OPG proposes to bury 200,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from its nuclear power plants in a thick layer of limestone 680 metres below ground, about a kilometre from Lake Huron. The company says the rock is so solid and stable it will contain any possible leakage of harmful radioactivity.
MORE:
[ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -site.html ]
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BEYOND NUCLEAR: Media Statement by Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps,
News from Beyond Nuclear For Immediate Release, May 6, 2015
[ http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/3 ... FW3wNR0%3D ]
re: today's Canadian federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) Environmental Assessment Report, on the proposed radioactive waste dump targeted at the Great Lakes shore, submitted to the Canadian Minister of the Environment [ http://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/document ... ent=101589 ]
“Beyond Nuclear joins with a growing groundswell of environmental and public interest groups, concerned residents, and governmental bodies across the Great Lakes Basin, in both the U.S. and Canada, to continue decrying the proposal by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to bury radioactive wastes on the Lake Huron shore, at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario.
The Great Lakes is the drinking water supply for 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations. The Great Lakes, containing 20% of the world’s surface fresh water, and close to 90% of North America’s, is the lifeblood of one of the world’s largest regional economies. As shown by the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear catastrophes, OPG’s proposed radioactive waste dump would put the Great Lakes, and its residents, at risk of radioactive ruination forevermore. This is entirely unacceptable on its face.
As unsafe as a dump on the Great Lakes shore for so-called “low” and “intermediate” level radioactive wastes from 20 reactors across Ontario already is, we fear a bait and switch. Opponents have already had to force OPG to reveal its secretive plans to double the dump’s already monstrous capacity, to take decommissioning wastes after reactor shutdowns across Ontario.
We also fear the remaining proposals in the Bruce area for Canada’s national high-level radioactive waste dump. How much sense would it make to build two deep geologic repositories (DGRs), for different purposes, in the same vicinity? Although OPG optimistically claims its first DGR would only cost some billions to construct and operate, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) most recent estimate for the price tag at the since-cancelled Yucca Mountain, Nevada DGR was close to $100 billion. And the 2014 explosion of a single barrel, and consequent radioactivity release underground and to the surface environment, at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico – which OPG modeled its DGR after – will cost many hundreds of millions of dollars, and perhaps even a billion dollars, to address.
OPG’s insane proposal is a declaration of war against the Great Lakes. If the Canadian federal government decides to support and approve this incredibly risky scheme, our bi-national grassroots coalition will intensify its resistance, as it has done for well over a decade. We commend the 154 municipalities, across all eight U.S. Great Lakes states, as well as Ontario,which have passed resolutions opposing OPG’s ill-advised Great Lakes radioactive waste dump.
And we urge all Americans to contact their U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative, to urge their support for bipartisan resolutions in the U.S. Congress expressing strong opposition to OPG’s DGR, and calling upon President Obama to take action against it.” - 30 -
Contact: Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, (240) 462-3216
Kevin Kamps
Radioactive Waste Watchdog
Beyond Nuclear
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400
Takoma Park, Maryland 20912
Office: (301) 270-2209 ext. 1
Cell: (240) 462-3216
Fax: (301) 270-4000
kevin@beyondnuclear.org
http://www.beyondnuclear.org
Kamps also serves as a board member of Don't Waste Michigan, representing the Kalamazoo Chapter.
--
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.
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Urge President Obama to oppose burial of TransCanada's radioactive wastes on Great Lakes shore!
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... adioa.html ]
February 25, 2015
Successful resistance to TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sands crude oil pipeline must now shift to fend off the dumping of TransCanada's radioactive wastes on the Great Lakes shore!
As reported by the Associated Press, on Feb. 24th, President Obama vetoed Senate Bill 1, which would have rushed the immediate construction of TransCanada Pipelines' Keystone XL tar sands crude oil pipeline. Our friends and colleagues at 350.org called for a rapid response action at the White House, at 5 pm, just hours after the veto. As we have many times in the past -- on tar sands, fracking, and other environmental issues -- Beyond Nuclear answered the call, and stood in solidarity with our allies. We have also joined a unity statement with a large number of other groups, calling on President Obama to reject TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline once and for all.
- - - -
TransCanada and other partners took over the operations at Bruce NGS in 2002, after its previous operator, British Energy, went bankrupt. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) actually owns Bruce NGS, but TransCanada Pipelines and its partners lease and operate the reactors. Thus, TransCanada Pipelines has been responsible for generating radioactive waste there for more than a dozen years already, with many more years, or even decades, of radioactive waste generation planned in the future. (Emphasis Added. Ed.) [ . . . ]
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Illinois speaks out against Canadian Great Lakes shoreline radioactive waste dump proposal
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... ine-r.html ]
February 11, 2015
Today, DuPage County, the second most populous in Illinois, announced the passage of a resolution in opposition to the proposal by nuclear utility Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to bury radioactive wastes from 20 atomic reactors across the province at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, on the Lake Huron shore in Kincardine, ON. [ . . . ]
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Cook County, Illinois Joins Call to Stop Proposed Nuclear Waste Dump beside the Great Lakes
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... r-was.html ]
October 9, 2014
As shared by Dave Kraft, Executive Director of Nuclear Energy Information Service in Chicago (Cook County), Illinois: "We share this important good news that the Cook County Board unanimously passed a resolution in support of banning the construction of a low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal facility on the shore of Lake Huron on the Bruce Peninsula in Canada. [ . . . ]
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Dr. Frank Greening's closing remarks to DGR JRP
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... r-jrp.html ]
October 9, 2014
Dr. Frank Greening, a scientist who worked at Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and its predecessor (Ontario Hydro) for decades, has submitted his closing comments to the Canadian federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) overseeing the Environmental Assessment (EA) on the proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR). Closing comments are due on October 9, 2014.
The DGR would be located at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station (NGS), on the shore of Lake Huron in Kincardine, Ontario, Canada. It would bury all of Ontario's so-called "low-level" and "intermediate-level" radioactive wastes (L&ILRWs), from 20 reactors across the province.
Dr. Greening, whose previous submissions to the JRP have revealed major underestimates by OPG and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regarding such basic issues as the radioactivity content of the waste, has here focused on two mass-exposure accidents at OPG (and Ontario Hydro's) commercial nuclear facilities: 55 workers exposed to internal Carbon-14 contamination at Pickering NGS in March, 1985; and 557 workers exposed to internal alpha-particle contamination at Bruce NGS in November and December, 2009.
Greening argues that those accidents, as well as the February, 2014 radioactivity release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, should serve as a serious warning against rushing ahead with this ill-considered DGR proposal.
Greening ends with this powerful conclusion:
What concerns me most about the proposed DGR is OPG’s level of ignorance about its size, about its radionuclide inventory, about how it will operate and about the potential for things to go horribly wrong through unexpected synergisms, as in the tragic Lac Mégantic disaster where a combination of relatively minor problems led to a major catastrophe. It is quite evident that OPG’s DGR proposal is based on only a pretense of knowledge of all possible risks within the proposed facility. As a result OPG ignores true uncertainty, as defined by U.S. economist F.H. Knight, which is something that is not susceptible to measurement and can never be eliminated from
human endeavor. Or as J.M. Keynes eloquently described it: “... matters where there is no scientific basis on which to form any calculable probability whatever. We simply do not know.”
Therefore I strongly urge the JRP to reject OPG’s DGR proposal. We know so very little about the long-term safety of a DGR and the American experience with the WIPP facility shows why we should err on the side of caution before proceeding with such a venture. After all, it took only one bad waste container to spoil an entire DGR facility! And besides, it is evident that a lot more research and development is needed before DGR technology could be declared to be safe and reliable. But in the meantime, we certainly do not need the existing WWMF [Bruce NGS's Western Waste Management Facility] to become home to a deep underground nuclear waste disposal test-bed on the shores of Lake Huron. Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread....".
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Grassroots opposition to Canada's Great Lakes radioactive waste dump gaining traction at state and federal level!
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ... e-was.html ]
September 24, 2014
Ontario Power Generation proposes to bury "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes from 20 reactors across the province at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station on the Lake Huron shore. The Great Lakes comprise 95% of North America's surface fresh water, providing drinking water to 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.
As reported by the News Herald, an effort to block Canada's proposed radioactive waste dump on the Great Lakes shoreline -- initiated by Ed McArdle of the Sierra Club's South East Michigan Group -- first succeed at the state level, and has now moved into the federal realm. At the state level, Ed's Michigan State Senator, Hoon-yung Hopgood (D-Taylor), introduced a resolution opposing the dump that past the State Senate by a unanimous vote. At the federal level, Michigan and New York Democrats have introduced a congressional resolution opposing the dump in the U.S. House; a bipartisan resolution has likewise been introduced in the U.S. Senate. [ . . . ]
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MORE INFORMATION:
[ http://www.beyondnuclear.org/low-level/ ]
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