Victory, for now: Bruce Power postpones radioactive steam generator shipment on Great Lakes till next spring

The Owens Sound, Ontario Sun Times reports that Bruce Power has decided to postpone its proposed shipment of 16 school bus sized, 100 ton radioactive steam generators until the spring. This represents a huge grassroots environmental victory. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission had planned to simply rubberstamp the risky proposal several months ago, until a groundswell of resistance in the U.S., Canada, and numerous Native American First Nations put the brakes on! See Beyond Nuclear's Canada website section for more detailed information.

License extensions at 17 atomic reactors to be challenged in German constitutional court

Final passage into law of license extensions, till as late as 2034, at 17 German atomic reactors, has been accomplished with the signature of Germany's largely symbolic figurehead president, Christian Wulff. But this has sparked legal objections by Social Democratic Party controlled state governments, which charge it is an unconstitional undermining of a national consensus to close all of the country's atomic reactors by 2022 at the latest. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's overturning of the Nuclear Consensus phase out plan has led to mass protests this year -- over 120,000 people forming a 75 mile long human chain between two nuclear power plants last April; 100,000 protestors in Berlin in September; and in November, 50,000 protestors blocking a radioactive waste train and trucks targeted at Gorleben, Germany's centralized interim storage site for high-level radioactive waste, and formerly proposed permanent dumpsite.

Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative submits powerful comments to CNSC opposing radioactive waste shipment

GLSLCI's logo.As announced in a media release, on November 22nd, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (GLSLCI), a binational coalition of over 70 mayors from Quebec, Ontario and the eight Great Lakes States who work to protect, restore and promote the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, submitted strong comments to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) in opposition to Bruce Power's application for a permit to ship 16 radioactive steam generators from Ontario to Sweden via the Great Lakes, connecting rivers, and the Atlantic Ocean for so-called "recycling" into consumer products. Additional information, including earlier submissions by GLSLCI to CNSC, are posted at GLSLCI's website.

GLSLCI's major conclusions are: an accident with this proposed shipment has the potential to exceed Canadian federal standards for radioactivity in drinking water; the proposed shipment exceeds the international allowable safety limits for total amount of radioactivity on a single ship; the environmental review is flawed; the continued difficulty in estimating the radioactivity of the shipment is cause for reevaluation and caution; the public participation process is flawed; emergency preparedness measures need several additions and upgrades to better respond to local conditions; the apparent reversal of burden of proof on environmental safety continues, whereby, ironically, CNSC staff appears to be taking the lead in defending the shipment proposal's merit and safety, rather than Bruce Power; the test of "equivalent safety" in light of the various international safety exemptions requested does not seem to have been met; this proposed shipment is not routine, it appears to be setting the Canadian precedent for the transport, export and processing of used radioactive equipment on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence. GLSLCI's ultimate conclusion is that, "Taken together, the above conclusions suggest that the environmental impacts continue to be underestimated, the process has been flawed, the shipment presents a precedent and that the original and revised reports fail to provide and present adequate information to enable the CNSC to render an informed decision on whether or not to allow the Bruce Power shipment to proceed," leading it to urge the CNSC to not approve the shipment.

U.S. Senators Levin and Stabenow thanked for defending Great Lakes

U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie StabenowBeyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps has thanked U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow (Democrats from Michigan) for defending the Great Lakes against radioactive waste shipping risks in an op-ed published today in the Muskegon Chronicle. Although the Canadian radioactive steam generator shipment at issue would not ply the waters of Lake Michigan (it would originate in Ontario and travel eastward), the Port of Muskegon itself has been targeted by the U.S. Dept. of Energy, under its Yucca Mountain, Nevada dump plan, for barge shipments of high-level radioactive waste. The irradiated nuclear fuel would have been shipped from Palisades nuclear power plant, on the waters of Lake Michigan, to Muskegon for loading onto a train. In 2002, Sen. Stabenow voted against the Yucca dump due in part to this risky proposal. In 2009, President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu cancelled the Yucca dump. 

Dr. Gordon Edwards submits outstanding comments to CNSC opposing radioactive steam generator shipping and "recycling" plan

Dr. Gordon EdwardsDr. Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, has shown yet again why he was awarded the Nuclear-Free Future Award in 2006 ("for his enduring role in demystifying nuclear technology helping the public to understand its radioactive predicament") with his "Supplementary Comments on the Proposed Transport of Steam Generators" submitted to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on November 22nd.