Michigan's U.S. Senators urge Secretary of State Kerry to take action against proposed Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump

As reported by the Macomb Daily Tribune, U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin (both Democrats from Michigan) have again written U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, urging that the Canada-U.S. International Joint Commission be activated, to study the risks of Ontario Power Generation's proposed "Deep Geologic Repository" (DGR) on the Lake Huron shore. Sens. Stabenow and Levin posted the full text of the letter on June 18th.

The DGR, dubbed the DUD by critics (for Deep Underground Dump), would be located at OPG's Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario, just 50 miles across Lake Huron from the Tip of Michigan's Thumb. OPG proposes to permanently bury all of the so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes (L&ILRWs) from 20 commercial atomic reactors across the province there, less than a mile from the Lake Huron shore.

In addition, a number of Bruce area municipalities -- mostly populated by Bruce Nuclear workers, and receiving tax revenues from the nuclear utility -- have volunteered to host Canada's national high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) dump. This has raised fears that the DGR1 (for L&ILRWs) could easily turn into DGR2 (for HLRWs as well).

The article also reports on a recent study by Environment Michigan, about large amounts of toxic chemicals being intentionally dumped into the Great Lakes as well. The study raises the specter of synergistic effects between radioactive and toxic chemical hazards -- the whole of the risks greater than the sum of its parts -- as warned about by Rachel Carson in Silent Spring over 50 years ago.