U.S. Sens. Stabenow and Levin (D-MI) join resistance to unprecedented Great Lakes radioactive waste dump, call for State Dept. action

U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, Democrats from Michigan who chair, respectively, the U.S. Senate Committees on Armed Services and AgricultureThe nearly 40,000 signatories of the Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition, the millions of Great Lakes residents represented by city, county, and state (or provincial) resolutions, and the scores of environmental groups on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border who oppose Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) insane proposal to bury 20 reactors' so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes 3/4ths of a mile from the Lake Huron shoreline have just been joined by some powerful new allies: Michigan's U.S. Senators, Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin (photo, left).

As reported by the Port Huron Times Herald, not only did the two members of the Democratic leadership of the U.S. Senate (Stabenow chairs the Agriculture Committee, Levin the Armed Services Committee) send staff to testify at the ongoing Canadian federal Joint Review Panel overseeing OPG's Environmental Assessment on the proposed DUD (Dave Martin of Greenpeace Canada's sarcastic nickname standing for Deep Underground Dump, instead of OPG's preferred DGR, for Deep Geologic Repository), they also called upon U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to look into the matter, including urging him to request that the International Joint Commission (IJC) advise the U.S. and Canadian governments on this unprecedented risk to the Great Lakes, drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

Stabenow and Levin made a similar move in 2002, calling on then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to investigate the risks of Ontario's Bruce Nuclear Generating Station storing a whopping 2,000 dry casks of high-level radioactive waste on the Lake Huron shore. (The DUD's entrance tunnel would be located immediately adjacent to the ever-growing dry cask storage facility at Bruce.) Unfortunately, Powell blew off the concern, with an underling flippantly declaring the Bruce Nuclear proposal safe.

Stabenow and Levin were more successful, however, when they joined with five additional Democratic U.S. Senators from Great Lakes states (Durbin from IL; Casey from PA; Schumer and Gillibrand from NY), led by Russ Feingold of WI, to question Bruce Nuclear's proposal to ship 64 radioactive steam generators by boat on the Great Lakes, in order to "recycle" them into consumer products in Sweden. Bruce Nuclear backed away from the proposal earlier this year, due to fierce resistance by Mohawk and other First Nations along the transport route. (The Saugeen Ojibwe Nations neighboring Bruce Nuclear are playing a vital role as skeptical stakeholders in the DUD proceeding, such as urging that OPG and its Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) come clean regarding whether or not high-level radioactive waste would be buried in the DUD, or a second nearby DUD. So far, the Joint Review Panel has rejected such calls for transparency from OPG.)

What can you do to help stop the DUD? Kay Cumbow of Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination and the Sierra Club's Blue Water Chapter, who resides near Port Huron, just over 100 miles from Bruce Nuclear and the proposed DUD, has put out an action alert, calling for expressions of thanks to U.S. Sens. Stabenow and Levin, as well as calls (or letters, emails, etc.) to your own U.S. Senators and Representatives, calling upon them to take action to protect the Great Lakes against these unprecedented proposals to dump radioactive wastes upon the shoreline of 20% of the world's surface fresh water.

She writes:

"Thanks to everyone who called Senator Stabenow and Levin, and our U.S. Representatives, too. Please call Senators Stabenow and Levin and thank them for taking action to protect thousands of generations of people in Michigan and in the Great Lakes watershed, who utterly depend on these irreplaceable fresh waters. You can call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected with their offices.
You can also call your U.S. Representatives at this number as well, and ask them to also take action. The more federal voices we have, the greater chance we have of stopping this madness.

If you live in another state, please urge your federal legislators (202-224-3121 is the Capitol switchboard) to join with Michigan's Senators to call on Sec. of State John Kerry to take action to stop this dump and protect these international waters."

In addition, if you haven't already, please sign the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition, and share it with everyone you know! Thanks!

The following news outlets have also reported on this story: MLive; The Hill; Detroit News; Toronto Star. The Toronto Star has also reported in follow-up that Ontario's Environment Minister has, thus far, ducked the question about Sens. Stabenow and Levin's request for an IJC investigation.

Post government shutdown, NRC Nuke Waste Con Game DGEIS public comment hearings to resume, and deadline to be extended

North Anna watchdog Erica Grey, and Diane D'Arrigo of NIRS, unfurl a banner at NRC's first Nuke Waste Con Game meeting, held Oct. 1st in the NRC Commissioners conference room at NRC HQ in Rockville, MD. Photo by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps.Today, NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence Directorate spokesperson, Sarah Lopas, confirmed in an email to NIRS that the Chelmsford, MA, Tarrytown, NY, Charlotte, NC, Orlando, FL, and Rockville, MD public comment meetings, scheduled between Oct. 28th and Nov. 14th, are again "a go" now that the federal government is no longer shutdown.

The meetings are for the public to comment on NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS).

In June, 2012, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ordered NRC to undertake an EIS on the risks of high-level radioactive waste storage. This hard-won victory for public health, safety, and the environment is due to a successful legal challenge brought by a coalition of environmental groups and states.

If you plan to attend these public comment meetings, NRC requests that you pre-register if you plan to make oral public comments. Only the NRC HQ public comment meeting in Rockville, MD on Nov. 14th will provide online, webcast coverage, and the option of phoning-in to make oral public comment; all other public comment meetings must be attend in-person.

Sarah Lopas also indicated that the public meetings previously scheduled between Oct. 7th and 24th for CA, MN, OH, and IL -- all postponed due to the government shutdown -- will now be re-scheduled, at the same previously announced locations. The new dates and times will be announced at a later point by NRC, perhaps as early as next week.

The NRC Nuclear Waste Confidence Diretorate plans to extend the public comment deadline beyond Nov. 27th, provided the NRC Commission approves the extension. The new deadline will be announced by NRC at a later point, likely next week.

NRC's announcements re: rescheduled public comment meetings and the new deadline for written public comments will likely crystallize next week. NRC will communicate these updates via its website, as well as via emailed announcements, and the publication of revised Federal Register notices. As soon as Beyond Nuclear obtains these updates, we too will publicize them.

In the meantime, please continue to submit your public comments to NRC via email, webform, fax, and/or snail mail.

You can submit as many public comments as you want, between now and the final public comment deadline.

Sample comments, which you can use to help you write your own, have been provided by Beyond Nuclear and NIRS.

At a press conference on Oct. 2nd, D.C. attorney Diane Curran, and experts Dr. Gordon Thompson (President of Institute for Resource and Security Studies) and Bob Alvarez (Senior Scholar, Institute for Policy Studies), also provided insights into the potentially catastrophic risks of high-level radioactive waste storage pool fires, which NRC is currently ignoring. Curran and the experts are preparing sample comments, on behalf of an environmental coalition comprised of two dozen groups, including Beyond Nuclear, so watch for those in weeks ahead, as well.

Rolling stewardship for radioactive waste, instead of Great Lakes shoreline dumping

As reported by the Toronto Star, the demand by an environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, for full disclosure on whether or not decommissioning wastes and even irradiated nuclear fuel would be buried at Ontario Power Generation's proposed Deep Geologic Repository at the Bruce Nuclear Station on the Lake Huron shore has been rejected by the Canadian federal Joint Review Panel overseeing the environmental assessment proceeding.

Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, has described abandonment of radioactive wastes on the Great Lakes shore as "criminal negligence," and instead calls for inter-generational "rolling stewardship" over the long-lasting hazardous substances.

The Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition now has nearly 37,000 signatures. If you haven't already signed it, please do, and spread the word to everyone you know.

In addition, one of Canada's biggest municipalities -- the City of Mississisauga, with 700,000 residents, just west of Toronto, on the Lake Ontario shore -- has passed a resolution opposing the DUD. It joins a growing list of cities across the Great Lakes that have done similarly.

CCNR calls for "Rolling Stewarship" for radioactive wastes, instead of abandonment on the Great Lakes shoreline

Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR, photo at left), has provided the following backgrounder on the proposed DGR1, including links to his written submission to the JRP, and the transcript of his oral testimony before the JRP:

CCNR has taken the position that it is both unscientific and unethical to abandon indestructible nuclear wastes that will remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.  "Disposal" is a scientifically meaningless word, as humanity has never successfully disposed of anything.

http://ccnr.org/CCNR_CEAA_DGR.pdf

The problem of isolating radioactive waste perpetually is so far an unsolved problem. Until a solution emerges, abandonment of the wastes is criminal negligence.

Instead, CCNR advocates a policy of "Rolling Stewardship" whereby the legacy of nuclear wastes is passed on from one generation to the next in the full knowledge of the nature of the wastes and the need to isolate them from the environment.

http://ccnr.org/DGR_GE_Transcript.pdf

Constant monitoring, guaranteed retrievability, and a plan for repackaging the wastes at regular intervals (ranging from a few decades to three hundred years) is a more responsible way to manage these wastes. When problems arise, corrective actions can be taken.

CCNR will be submitting a supplementary brief on Rolling Stewardship before the end of the hearings.

Gordon Edwards.

How do you safely store 40 years of radioactive waste?

The Toronto Star has asked, "How do you safely store 40 years of radioactive waste?" Do you bury it beside the drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations?

This is what Ontario Power Generation (OPG) proposes to do with 200,000 cubic meters of operational and refurbishment so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes from 20 atomic reactors across Ontario, at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station on the Lake Huron shoreline, just 50 miles to the east of the tip of Michigan's Thumb.

However, as mentioned in the article, OPG is trying to pull a fast one. Watchdogs, such as the regional environmental group Northwatch, have forced OPG to admit that it plans to nearly double the capacity of its so-called DGR (for Deep Geologic Repository), by adding decommissioning wastes. Critics refer to the DGR as the DUD, a sarcastic acronym standing for Deep Underground Dump.

An environmental coalition has also questioned whether this first DUD will simply morph with a second DUD in the nearby vicinity, this one for high-level radioactive waste from 22 atomic reactors across three Canadian provinces. A half-dozen Bruce area municipalities have "volunteered" to be considered as "willing hosts" for all of Canada's irradiated nuclear fuel. The same Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), comprised of nuclear industry officials, is in charge of both the DGR1 license application and the DGR2 site search.

As reported by the article, last Friday the federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) overseeing OPG's environmental assessment on DUD1 has rejected formal demands (Requests for Ruling) made by dozens of environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear, for full disclosure on what exactly is to be buried on the Lake Huron shore. The JRP will neither suspend the month-long hearings, nor require OPG to fully explain its intentions surrounding decommissioning wastes or irradiated nuclear fuel.