As reported in last week's Beyond Nuclear email bulletin, resistance is mounting on both sides of the Great Lakes international border to Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) plan to bury radioactive wastes on the Lake Huron shoreline.
On Aug. 19, Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, was honored to be invited to speak at the ‘Save the Great Lakes from Nuclear Waste’ town hall meeting at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. Michigan State Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, and State Rep. Sarah Roberts, D-St. Clair Shores, organized the event. In May, Hopgood introduced a resolution, which passed the Michigan State Senate unanimously, urging the U.S. House and Senate to oppose the plan. Roberts is poised to introduce a similar resolution once the Michigan State House legislative session resumes.
Hopgood and Roberts, along with a panel of experts, which included Ed McArdle of the Sierra Club's South East Michigan Group, as well as Beverly Fernandez of the Ontario-based group Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, provided information about OPG's proposed deep geological repository at the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant on the Lake Huron shoreline, and the impact it could have on Michigan’s water, economy, fishing, tourism, health and future.
Those opposed to the DUD plan are urged to sign Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump's online petition.
As reported by the Detroit Free Press:
'Opponents of a proposal to build an underground nuclear waste dump less than a mile from the shores of Lake Huron railed tonight in Detroit against a project they called a declaration of war against the Great Lakes...
Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist for Takoma Park, Md.-based Beyond Nuclear, said the project would be unprecedented because nuclear waste has not been stored underground in the Great Lakes region and could be dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.
“This proposal is insane. It’s a declaration of war against the Great Lakes,” Kamps said...'.
The Macomb Daily Tribune also reported on this story.
On August 12th, the Macomb Daily Tribune ran another comprehensive article about the proposed Canadian radioactive waste dump, and opposition to it downstream in eastern Michigan.
Ontario's Lucknow Sentinel also reported on the town hall meeting.
In a victory for the state of Vermont and its people, Entergy will close Vermont Yankee in 2014 and begin decommissioning the reactor. According to the Wall Street Journal, "The station is expected to cease power production after its current fuel cycle and move to safe shutdown in the fourth quarter of 2014." The State of the Vermont, with overwhelming public support, voted to, and has been demanding, the shutdown of the troubled, aging Mark I, a twin design to those that melted down and exploded at Fukushima Daiichi. Entergy fought successfully to keep the plant open in the courts of law with support from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the company had been exposed for lying under oath about buried leaking pipes and the reactor had suffered leaks, fires and the collapse of cooling towers. It is also contributing to thermal pollution in the Connecticut River that harms the wildlife there and the aquatic ecosystem. More news...
August 27, 2013