Bruce Nuclear Complex on the Lake Huron shore in Kincardine, Ontario, CanadaThe Canadian nuclear establishment in industry and government has proposed a radioactive waste dump on the Lake Huron shoreline at the Bruce Nuclear Power Complex. Consisting of a total of nine atomic reactors (one prototype permanently shut, eight commercial reactors still operable), Bruce is the largest operating nuclear power plant in the world (after its Japanese competition at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa shut down, at least temporarily). Located in Kincardine, Ontario, Canada, 50 miles to the east of the State of Michigan across Lake Huron, Bruce also hosts the "Western Waste Management Facility" (WWMF).
All of the so-called "low-level" and "intermediate-level" radioactive waste from 20 operable atomic reactors across Ontario (8 at Bruce, plus 8 at Pickering and 4 more at Darlington just to the east of Toronto) has, for years and even decades, been shipped to and consolidated at the WWMF. "Low-level" radioactive wastes have even been incinerated there, with untold radioactive releases to the atmosphere. It is at the WWMF that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) -- which owns the province's 20 atomic reactors, and is liable for the radioactive wastes generated -- proposes to bury all of its "low-level" and "intermediate-level" radioactive wastes in a "Deep Geologic Repository" (DGR) located a mere kilometer (half-mile) from the waters of Lake Huron, drinking water supply for tens of millions downstream in the U.S., Canada, and numerous Native American First Nations. Dave Martin of Greenpeace Canada dubbed the DGR as the "Deep Underground Dump," or, more aptly, the DUD! OPG hopes to receive permission from the Canadian federal government's CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) and CEAA (Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency) to begin constructing the DGR/DUD as soon as late 2013.
Please email the Canadian federal government's DGR environmental joint review panel at DGR.Review@ceaa-acee.gc.ca, urging that this threat to the Great Lakes -- 20% of the world's surface fresh water, and drinking water supply for 40 million people -- is unacceptable on its face and must be cancelled immediately.
To see OPG's proposal and the Canadian federal government's environmental review, go to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency's website.
To see opponents' objections to the DGR/DUD, go to the Northwatch website.
Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps has been invited, along with Diane D'Arrigo of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, to serve as an expert witness for Great Lakes United (GLU) in its intervention against the DUD before the Canadian federal government's environmental review panel. Kevin has served on GLU's Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force for over a decade. GLU is a bi-national coalition comprised of scores of environmental groups in 8 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces.