Bi-national environmental coalition demands U.S. Dept. of Transportation scrutinize risks of radioactive waste ship on Great Lakes

A U.S.-Canadian environmental coalition has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, demanding that it perform a federally required National Environmental Policy Act examination of the risks associated with Bruce Power shipping 16 radioactive steam generators from its 8 reactor nuclear power plant on the Lake Huron shoreline in Ontario, via the remaining Great Lakes, across the Atlantic, to Sweden for melting down and mixing into the consumer product scrap metal recycling stream. The coalition also demands that PHMSA analyze the less dangerous alternative of a longstanding Canadian plan simply to store the steam generators indefinitely onsite. They demand this happen before granting a U.S. DOT permit for the shipment of these radioactive wastes through U.S. waters on the Great Lakes. As described in the coalition's press release, the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Cities Initiative has calculated that the radioactive cargo would violate International Atomic Energy Agency safety regulations for the amount of radioactivity allowed on a single ship by 50 times over. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, whose staff has described the shipment as of very low risk, will hold a hearing in Ottawa, Ontario beginning on Sept. 29th to receive public comment from concerned citizens. Over 75 such submissions have been made by groups from the U.S. and Canada, showing how concerned environmentalists are about this radioactive waste shipment on the Great Lakes. Beyond Nuclear has registered to provide oral testimony at the hearing on the comments it has submitted. A full size image of the map showing the route above appeared in the Detroit News on Sept. 11.

Resistance builds to radioactive waste shipments on the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes United (GLU) Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force has taken the lead in shining a spotlight on the proposal by Bruce Nuclear Power Complex in Ontario to barge 16 radioactive steam generators out the Great Lakes, and across the Atlantic, to Sweden for "recycling" the metal for un-restricted re-use in consumer products. A resolution signed by scores of organizations in the U.S. and Canada, as well as a cover letter to heads of government in the U.S. and Canada, signed by Task Force co-chairs Dr. Gordon Edwards and Michael Keegan, as well as GLU executive director Derek Stack, is posted at the GLU website. Also posted there are three documents written by Dr. Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility: a graphic image and photograph showing the radioactive "intestines" inside steam generatorss; an inventory of the hazardous radioactive isotopes that contaminate steam generators; and official company and government environmental assessment documents showing that the plan had been to store the radioactive steam generators on-site as waste, not ship them off for "recycling."

In addition to the radiological risks of one of these barges sinking -- including stigma impacts on economic sectors such as Great Lakes tourism and fisheries, even if there is not a radioactive release -- there is also the precedent setting nature of this proposal. As part of its Yucca Mountain plan, the U.S. Dept. of Energy has also proposed barging high-level radioactive wastes on the Great Lakes, as well as on the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay, various surface waters surrounding metro New York City as well as Boston, the California and Florida coastlines, and such inland rivers as the James in Virginia, the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Tennessee. Unlike steam generators, irradiated nuclear fuel sinking risks accidental nuclear chain reactions underwater, due to the presence of fissile U-235 and Pu-239 in the high-level radioactive waste, which would make emergency response a "suicide mission," and would worsen radioactive releases to the environment. But any other "away-from-reactor" plans, such as reprocessing or "centralized interim storage" (aka parking lot dumps), could also involve such barge shipments.

Beyond Nuclear has delivered copies of the materials about the Bruce steam generator barge shipments proposal to the U.S. congressional delegations of the eight Great Lakes States (IL, IN, MI, MN, NY, OH, PA, WI). Please contact your own U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Urge them to take action, such as contacting the Obama administration, to protect the inland and coastal waters of the U.S. from the risks of shipping radioactive wastes.

Bruce Power exposes over 200 workers to internally inhaled alpha radiation

As reported by CBC, Bruce Power, which leases and operates 6 atomic reactors in Kincardine, Ontario, has exposed more than 200 of its own workers, as well as contractors, to ultra-hazardous alpha radioactivity. The workers were not wearing respiratory protection as pipes contaminated with alpha-emitting radioactive particles were ground through during steam generator replacement activities.

The risk is that a minute quantity of alpha radioactivity, inhaled into the lung, will cause latent lung cancer. The latency period can be measured in years, or even decades. Hence, nuclear authorities' oft-invoked euphemism, "no immediate danger," as has been invoked in this particular disaster as well.

The phrase featured so prominently during the Three Mile Island meltdown that Rosalie Bertell used it as the title for her post-TMI exposé. But she added a loaded question mark on the end!

Push in Ontario for strengthened tritium drinking water health protection standards

Rosalie Bertell is a Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart and Ph.D. in Biometrics. She has been awarded 1986 Right Livelihood (altnerative Nobel Peace Prize) -- and many other environmental and human rights awards -- for her lifelong work to protect human health against the hazards of ionizing radiation and toxic chemicals. On March 1, 2008, Dr. Bertell provided testimony to the Ontario Drinking Water Advisory Council on behalf of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health which she founded. She called for a dramatic strengthening of health protection standards regarding radioactive tritium in drinking water. The Ontario Drinking Water Advisory Council seems to have listened, for in May 2009 it advised the provincial government of Ontario to lower "permissible" levels of tritium in drinking water down from 7,000 becquerels per liter (189,000 picocuries per liter) to 20 becquerels per liter (540 picocuries per liter), a 350-fold strengthening of Ontario health protection standards, and a nearly 40-fold strengthening upon current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards (which allow for 20,000 picocuries per liter of tritium in drinking water).

Canadian nuclear plant spills tritium and hydrazine into Lake Ontario

The Toronto Star has reported that the Darlington nuclear power plant, site of 4 CANDU reactors, accidentally released over 50,000 gallons of water contaminated with radioactive tritium and toxic hydrazine into Lake Ontario. Predicatbly, the Ontario nuclear utility has downplayed any health risks. But documents on Beyond Nuclear's and NIRS' websites show that tritium, whether released into the environment "routinely" as part of daily operations, or accidentally via spills or leaks, cannot only cause cancer, but other maladies such as birth defects and genetic damage. For its part, hydrazine is so toxic that the U.S. military justified its shooting down of a listless satellite in order to prevent the toxin on board from reaching the Earth's surface, as reported by National Public Radio in early 2008.