Great Lakes nuclear dump?! Speak now, or forever hold your peace!

The radioactive waste dump would be located less than a mile from the Lake Huron shore, surrounded by the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, one of the biggest nuclear power plants in the worldThe Canadian federal Environmental Assessment (EA) on Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) on the Great Lakes shore is entering the final phase. Two weeks of public hearings end on September 18th.

Beyond Nuclear Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, testified before the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) Joint Review Panel (JRP) on Sept. 16th. See his powerpoint.

Kevin's presentation summarized his July 21st written submission.

There is a video archive of every day of the two weeks of hearings. Kevin spoke second in the afternoon session of Sept. 16th.

What can you do to help stop the Canadian Great Lakes radioactive waste dump?

Urge your U.S. Representative to support the Kildee-Levin congressional resolution, introduced last week, H.Res. 716, opposing the DGR.

You can phone your U.S. Representative via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

You can also look up your U.S. Representative's direct phone number, fax number, email/webform, as well as snail mail address.

If you haven't already, you can also sign the Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition, now over 70,000 signatures! Please also forward it to everyone you know!

As featured on the Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump website, resolutions continue to come in from across the Great Lakes Basin, opposing the DGR. The current total is around 130 resolutions! Get your municipality to pass a resolution too! Contact Kevin Kamps for more information at (240) 462-3216, or kevin@beyondnuclear.org.

Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump has run a second powerful ad in the Toronto Star.

Additional background

Beyond Nuclear has joined with numerous environmental allies in testifying against the DGR during the past two weeks of public hearings, including: local concerned residents, Ontario Clean Air Alliance, Northwatch (and its experts from Southwest Research Information Center and Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force), Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, International Institute of Concern for Public Health, Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, Michigan state legislators Hopgood and Pavlov, Canadian Environmental Law Association, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, ZeroWaste4ZeroBurning, and Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes.

Save Our Saugeen Shores (SOS) and the Southampton Residents Association (SRA) released a press statement on Sept. 18th regarding Bruce County's response to the Bellchamber closed meeting report. On Aug. 7th, the Canadian Press reported that "Bruce County mayors broke [the] law by holding secret meetings on storing Ontario['s] nuclear waste, probe finds." In their Sept. 18th press release, SOS and SRA:

"We have written today to André Marin, the Ontario Ombudsman, asking him, for the reasons set out below, to review this entire matter.

We have also written today to the Hon. Kathleen Wynne, asking her, for the same reasons, to do whatever is necessary to facilitate a review by the Ombudsman and, after considering his report:

1. establish appropriate penalties for contraventions of the Municipal Act requirement of open, minuted public meetings of municipal councils, whether through Bill 8 or otherwise, and

2. determine appropriate direction to give OPG."

The Saugeen Ojibwe Nations (SON) also expressed deep skepticism, and asked critical questions, regarding the permanent burial of so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes on their traditional territory along the Lake Huron shoreline.

After the JRP public hearings conclude today, the JRP will go behind closed doors to determine whether the EA is acceptable, or not. They will communicate their decision to the Canadian federal Environment Minister, who will deliver her conclusion to Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet. They will decide whether or not to approve the DGR, bypassing the Canadian federal Parliament.

Update on September 18, 2014 by admin

As reported by the Associated Press, as well as ABC News 10, on the very day that the JRP hearings ended, a U.S. Senate resolution was introduced in opposition to the Canadian Great Lakes radioactive waste dump. The bipartisan resolution is co-sponsored by Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow (Democrats from Michigan), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Mark Kirk (R-IL). The Senate Resolution has not yet been assigned an S.Res. number.

Please contact your own two U.S. Senators and urge them to support this Senate Resolution against the Canadian Great Lakes radioactive waste dump. You can phone them via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or find their other contact information (email address and/or webform, fax number, snail mail addresses) at the link provided above.

Update on September 19, 2014 by admin

The Toronto Star has reported on the ending of the JRP hearings.

Update on September 24, 2014 by admin

As reported by the Huron Daily Tribune, Michigan State Senator Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair Twp.) is conducting a series of town hall meetings in eastern MI opposed to OPG's DGR. At the most recent, held in the Village of Sebewaing, he was joined by Steve Pego, chief of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.

“We call [the Great Lakes] our lifeblood, because without it we wouldn’t survive,” Pego said. “What about our grandchildren, when the tanks corrode?”