Great Lakes group urges residents to oppose nuclear waste dump on Lake Huron

As reported by Jim Bloch at The Voice, "Public Comment Deadline is March 6."

Bloch quotes Beyond Nuclear:

The Great Lakes Environmental Alliance hosted a forum on OPG’s additional information Feb. 22 in the St. Clair County Building in Port Huron. Two prominent critics of the dump, Dr. Gordon Edwards, who is Canadian, and Kevin Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist with Beyond Nuclear in Maryland, spoke via satellite...

At WIPP in New Mexico, “there was a barrel of waste that exploded and turned into a flame-thrower,” Edwards said. “It was through chemical reactions with the kitty litter that was used as packing material. As a result of the accident, the plutonium dust rose through the waste chambers, 750 meters up to the surface and contaminated 22 workers.”

“A single barrel burst and the current price tag for recovery is $2 billion,” said Kamps. “It was lucky there weren’t workers underground at WIPP.”

If there had been, the consequences of the accident would have been worse.

“Up until 2014, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and OPG really hung their hats on the WIPP project,” said Kamps. “They kept pointing to the WIPP project and saying it was a successful example of how a DGR could work. When the WIPP accident happened, OPG and the CNSC could not back peddle fast enough.”...

“Just on the three questions the minister has asked, they should be given a failing grade,” said Kamps. “The entire application should be rejected outright.”