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.”

Northwatch: Comment on nuclear waste burial plan beside Lake Huron

Brennain Lloyd of Northwatch has prepared sample comments you can use to write your own, for submission to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency by the March 6 deadline.

Northwatch: Ontario Power Generation's "Additional Information" Under Review

See Northwatch's website Burying Nuclear Waste at the Bruce: OPG's Proposed Deep Geological Repository for an update on the latest round of public comment opportunity to express opposition to the Ontario Power Generation radioactive waste dump(s) targeted at the Great Lakes shoreline.

Beyond Nuclear presentation to GLEA's letter writing party re: DUD

GLEA (the Great Lakes Environmental Alliance) hosted a letter-writing party in Port Huron, Michigan on Feb. 22nd, to generate public comments to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) re: Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) propsed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR, or DUD, short for Deep Underground Dump) for radioactive waste abandonment (a.k.a. dumping) on the Great Lakes shoreline, at Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario.

See the power point presentation by Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste watchdog, here (as well as the PDF version).

WRITE NOW!: Comment on the additional information submitted by OPG re: its proposed Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump

Action alert from Save Our Saugeen Shores, also known as SOS Great Lakes:

In February, 2016 the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna requested Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to provide additional information regarding the proposed Deep Geologic Repository for Low and Intermediate Level Waste in Kincardine, ON. 

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) is asking the public to comment on the additional information submitted by the proponent, OPG. 

We urge you to write to the CEAA and help oppose the DGR project. The deadline has been extended to March 6, 2017! 

Copy the letter we drafted below, fill in your name and date and submit it to the CEAA! [You can submit your comments by email at CEAA.DGR.Project-Projet.DGR.ACEE@ceaa-acee.gc.ca, or by snail mail (ASAP!) at the address given below.]

Click the link below for more information: 

http://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/document-eng.cfm?document=117121

Deep Geologic Repository Project
Project Manager
Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
160 Elgin Street, 22nd Floor, Ottawa ON  K1A 0H3
CEAA.DGR.Project-Projet.DGR.ACEE@ceaa-acee.gc.ca

From: [Enter Name/Address]
Date: [Enter Date]
CC: The Honourable Catherine McKenna; Prime Minister Trudeau; Honourable James Carr
Subject: The Canadian Government Needs to Stand up to OPG

Dear Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA):

It is time for the Canadian government to enforce the Environmental Assessment Act. In March of 2016, Honourable Catherine McKenna asked Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to identify specific alternate sites for the burial of nuclear waste and they have refused to do so. OPG’s proposal to construct a deep geologic repository (DGR) for radioactive nuclear waste on the shore of Lake Huron, in Kincardine, ON, should be rejected NOW.

OPG’s “Response to Information Requested from the Minister of Environment and Climate Change” submitted to the CEAA on December 28, 2016 is inadequate for the following reasons:

1. OPG fails, for the fifth time, to clearly identify specific feasible alternate locations with reference to actual locations for the burial of nuclear waste.

2. Its updated analysis of the cumulative environmental effects of the Project in light of the proposal for the DGR 2 by NWMO is inadequate and does not follow standard practice for cumulative effects analysis.

3. Its updated list of mitigation commitments lacks credibility.

4. OPG states that transporting radioactive waste by road to alternate locations in the province would have greater risk than burying it 900 metres from the shore of Lake Huron. They continue to fail to recognize that the efforts of every other country in the world have produced deep burial sites that have failed to prevent radiological waste from escaping into the surrounding environment.

OPG claims that people in Ontario have little interest in the Project despite a documented history of highly-biased public opinion research and ongoing, widespread public opposition in Canada and the U.S.

Ontario Power Generation’s repeated failure to adequately consider alternate sites for nuclear waste storage and its numerous violations of environmental laws are all the grounds the Canadian government needs to deny the Project.

Your truly,

[Enter Name]