Help stop radioactive steam generator shipment on the Great Lakes!

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has requested additional public comments on the proposal by Bruce Nuclear Power Plant in Ontario (the largest nuclear power plant in the Western Hemisphere, and among the largest in the world, with 8 operable reactors, and 1 permanently shut down reactor) to ship 16 radioactive steam generators on a boat via the Great Lakes to Sweden for "recycling," potentially into consumer products. The shipment would traverse Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Welland Canal, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and the Atlantic Ocean. The shipment's radioactivity -- mostly ultra-hazardous plutonium -- presents an unacceptable risk to the Great Lakes, 20% of the planet's surface fresh water, and drinking water supply for 40 million people in the U.S., Canada, and a large number of Native American First Nations. Please help put the brakes on this risky shipment by emailing the CNSC at Interventions@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca, urging that a full panel review be undertaken on the proposal, the highest level environmental assessment option under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Likewise, email the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) at phmsa.administrator@dot.gov, urging that the agency undertake a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) before permitting the shipment to enter U.S. territory on the Great Lakes and connecting rivers. PHMSA has been hauled before the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in recent months to be grilled on its involvement in disastrous oil pipeline spills into Michigan and Illinois rivers, deadly natural gas pipeline explosions, and its cozy ties to the very companies it is supposed to regulate. For more background information on the proposed shipment, see http://www.beyondnuclear.org/canada/.

7 Great Lakes States U.S. Senators object to radioactive waste shipment from Canada to Sweden

Seven U.S. Senators from Great Lakes States -- Russell Feingold (D-WI), Robert Casey Jr. (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Carl Levin (D-MI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Richard Durbin (D-IL, Assistant Senate Majority Leader), and Charles Schumer (D-NY) -- have written to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the Canadian federal government, expressing serious concerns about a proposed shipment of 16 radioactive steam generators from Bruce Nuclear Power Plant in Ontario to Sweden for "recycling" into consumer products. The shipment, on board a single ship, would violate International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) limits for the quantity of radioactivity aboard a single vessel. The shipment would travel via Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and connecting rivers (St. Clair, Detroit, the Welland canal, and St. Lawrence), and then across the Atlantic Ocean (see route map). Shockingly, Bruce Power's CEO, Duncan Hawthorne, has stated that there is no emergency plan for dealing with the sinking of the ship, stating there would be plenty of time to determine what to do once the ship sank. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, as well as the US DOT PHMSA, must approve permits for the shipment before it can commence. PHMSA has recently been the subject of severe criticism for oil pipeline leak and natural gas pipeline explosion disasters, as well as for the close ties between its leadership and companies involved in these disasters. Beyond Nuclear, along with a coalition of environmental groups, has called upon PHMSA to conduct a full environmental analysis on the proposed shipment, in order to fulfill its National Environmental Policy Act federal legal obligations, before permitting the shipment to enter U.S. territorial waters on the Great Lakes -- 20% of the world's surface fresh water, drinking supply for 40 million in the U.S., Canada, and numerous Native American/First Nations, and regional engine for one of the biggest economies on the planet.