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ARTICLE ARCHIVE

Canada

Canada is the world's largest exporter of uranium and operates nuclear reactors including on the Great Lakes. Attempts are underway to introduce nuclear power to the province of Alberta and to use nuclear reactors to power oil extraction from the tar sands.

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Entries by admin (358)

Friday
Feb032017

Federal judge greenlights unprecedented, high-risk, highly radioactive liquid waste truck shipments from Ontario to South Carolina

Political cartoon by Adam Zyglis, the Buffalo NewsMedia coverage:

WIBV TV, Buffalo, NY;

Le Téléjournal Ontario (in French);

Citizen-Times of Asheville, NC;

Aiken Standard;

Sierra Club's Green Life;

Augusta Chronicle;

Buffalo News;

WLOS, ABC News Channel 13 in Western North Carolina;

CHCH, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada TV.

Press release by environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, re: judge's adverse ruling, allowing unprecedented, high-risk, highly radioactive liquid waste truck shipments from Chalk River Nuclear Lab, Ontario, Canada to Savannah River Site, South Carolina, U.S.A. (See the judge's 18-page Memorandum Opinion, and 1-page Order of Dismissal, both dated Feb. 2, 2017.) Terry Lodge of Toledo, Ohio and Diane Curran of Washington, D.C. serve as the environmental coalition's legal counsel.

U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY): Higgins Announces Approval of Bill Authorizing Risk Assessment of Proposed Nuclear Waste Transport across the Peace Bridge (Feb. 1, 2017).

Thursday
Feb022017

“No Nuclear Waste in the Great Lakes Backyard”: Lawmakers Send a Special Plea to Canada’s New Minister of Foreign Affairs

As posted at SOS Great Lakes:

Republican and Democratic Lawmakers from the Great Lakes states sent a letter to Canada’s newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs (Chrystia Freeland) opposing Ontario Power Generation (OPG)’s proposed nuclear waste repository on the shores of Lake Huron. 

The letter asks Minister Chrystia Freeland to require OPG to select a site that is outside the Great Lakes basin, saying “permanently burying nuclear waste so close to the drinking water of nearly 40 million people is just too risky.”

The letter also says OPG has purposely downplayed opposition to the potential waste site. 186 local, county and state governments in the U.S. and Canada have passed resolutions opposing the proposed nuclear waste repository.

Read the Great Lakes Now article, here.

Wednesday
Feb012017

Michigan congressmen urge U.S. and Canadian governments to reject nuclear waste site near Lake Huron

As reported by Michigan Radio, a bipartisan coalition of 23 Members of Congress from seven of the eight Great Lakes States (IL, IN, MI, MN, NY, OH, and WI; only PA is not represented) have urged the U.S. and Canadian governments to block Ontario Power Generation's proposed radioactive waste dump on the Great Lakes shoreline:

Members of Michigan's congressional delegation have sent letters to the Trump administration and the Canadian government in hopes of stopping a planned nuclear waste site along Lake Huron.

Ontario Power Generation wants to store low and intermediate level radioactive waste less than a mile from Lake Huron.  The utility insists the plan is safe and other options are too expensive.

The Canadian government is taking public comment on the proposal.   

Michigan’s congressional delegation want the Trump administration to use its influence to discourage the Canadian government from letting the plan move forward.

Republican Paul Mitchell, R-MI 10th District, says the plan “poses a danger to a crucial water source.”

In a different letter, a bi-partisan group of congressmen from different states, including Michigan, tell Canada’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs of their opposition to the project.

The lawmakers wrote a letter to Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland. It said, in part:

“Our countries have long partnered to protect the Great Lakes. And we ask that the Canadian government continue to enhance our strong relationship by exploring other options outside of the Great Lakes basin to store nuclear waste.”

Nearly 200 local governments and other groups have taken a stand against the plan to build the facility near Kincardine, Ontario. 

The Canadian government has delayed its decision on the project in the past. No decisions are expected until this fall. 

Full text of the letter sent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs can be found below:

Minister Freeland:

Congratulations on your recent appointment as Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs. We look forward to working with you and Prime Minister Trudeau on a multitude of issues of mutual interest to our countries.

For some time, Members of Congress from both parties have expressed concerned about a proposed deep geologic repository for nuclear waste (DGR) that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is planning to build in Kincardine, Ontario less than one mile from the Great Lakes.

We would like to emphasize our opposition to permanently burying nuclear waste within the Great Lakes basin.

Recently, OPG released a study on potential alternate locations for the DGR. In that report, OPG recognized that there are other viable locations to store nuclear waste in Ontario that would be technically feasible. And we ask that you require OPG to select a site that is outside the Great Lakes basin. Again, permanently burying nuclear waste so close to the drinking water of nearly 40 million people is just too risky.

Further, a portion of the report, under the section ‘Social Licence’, reads in part, “Research shows that there is little interest among the general public regarding the DGR Project at the Bruce Nuclear site.” We vehemently disagree with this conclusion.

First, one cannot depend on social media or internet traffic activity to determine the public’s feelings about burying toxic waste next to the Great Lakes. This data is neither scientific nor representative of the entire population.

Attached you will find a list of 186 local, county and state governments representing nearly 23 million people in the U.S. and Canada that have passed resolutions opposing the proposed nuclear waste repository. In addition, we have heard from our constituents that they are overwhelmingly opposed to OPG’s proposal.

As you can see, contradictory to OPG’s report, there is in fact broad opposition from citizens in both Canada and the United States to burying nuclear waste near the Great Lakes.

Our countries have long partnered to protect the Great Lakes. And we ask that the Canadian government continue to enhance our strong relationship by exploring other options outside of the Great Lakes basin to store nuclear waste.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter and congratulations again on your appointment.

Sincerely,

Daniel Kildee [(Democrat-Michigan)]

Sean Duffy [(Republican-Wisconsin)]

Debbie Dingell [(D-MI)]

Paul Mitchell [(R-MI)]

Jackie Walorski [(R-IN)]

David Joyce [(R-OH)]

Sander Levin [(D-MI)]

Brad Schneider [(D-IL)]

John Moolenaar [(R-MI)]

Jim Renacci [(R-OH)]

Mike Bishop [(R-MI)]

Brenda Lawrence [(D-MI)]

Robin Kelly [(D-IL)]

Dave Trott [(R-MI)]

Marcy Kaptur [(D-OH)]

Jan Schakowsky [(D-IL)]

John Conyers, Jr. [(D-MI)]

Daniel Lipinski [(D-IL)]

Peter Roskam [(R-IL)]

Richard Nolan [(D-MN)]

Marcia Fudge [(D-OH)]

Louise Slaughter [(D-NY)]

Brian Higgins [(D-NY)]

Thursday
Jan192017

Video Launch: Great Lakes Threatened With Radioactive Waste - SOS Great Lakes

SOS Great Lakes (also known as Save Our Saugeen Shores) has published a short video about OPG's plan to dump radioactive waste on the Great Lakes shore. Watch it here.

Below is a text of the video's audio:

Right now, there is a plan to bury nuclear waste on the shore of Lake Huron. A plan that could result in the pollution of the largest basin in the world for 100, 000 years, the Great Lakes Basin.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is a Canadian power company that plans to bury up to 400, 000 cubic metres of radioactive nuclear waste less than 1 km from Lake Huron. This means building a nuclear waste dump on the shore of the Great Lakes, a source of drinking water for 40 million people in Canada and the United States. 

We are SOS Great Lakes. We are challenging OPG’s dump. 

We are among more than 100 organizations, 100 communities and 150,000 people in Canada and the U.S. who want Catherine McKenna, the Canadian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, to say NO to the dump. 

We believe that if the 40 million people who rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water knew about this highly risky and needless threat to the Great Lakes, they would never allow it to happen.

We can’t reach those people by ourselves. Join us. Share this story. 

Your lakes, your choice. 


Read about 8 reasons to stop the DGR: http://www.sosgreatlakes.org/8-reason...

Follow SOS Great Lakes for updates: http://www.sosgreatlakes.org/tell-you...

Reach out to your government: http://www.sosgreatlakes.org/government/

Wednesday
Jan182017

Public Notice -- Deep Geologic Repository Project — Public Comment Invited on Additional Information

As announced by CEAA:

January 18, 2017 — The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency [CEAA] is seeking public comments on the additional information submitted by the proponent, Ontario Power Generation, for the proposed Deep Geologic Repository Project for Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste in Kincardine, Ontario.

The Agency invites the public, Indigenous groups and governments to review and comment on the additional information. Comments received will be taken into consideration by the Agency in its analysis and technical review of the additional information.

All comments received will be considered public. Written comments in either official language should be sent by February 17, 2017 [The deadline has been extended to March 6, 2017. The additional time was requested by the public and Indigenous groups to provide them with more time to comment on the information.] by mail or email to:

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

The Agency will prepare a draft report containing its analysis of the additional information and the comments received. The public and Indigenous groups will be invited to review and comment on the Agency's report at a future date.

To be kept informed of the progress of the review, please provide an email address to the project manager above.

For more information, visit the Agency's website, reference number 17520.

The Proposed Project

Ontario Power Generation proposes to prepare a site, and construct and operate a facility for the long-term management of low and intermediate level radioactive waste at the Bruce nuclear site, within the Municipality of Kincardine, Ontario.