Canada
Canada is the world's largest exporter of uranium and operates nuclear reactors including on the Great Lakes. Attempts are underway to introduce nuclear power to the province of Alberta and to use nuclear reactors to power oil extraction from the tar sands.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................
On July 29th, Kildee wrote both the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S., as well as the Canadian Foreign Minister, opposing the DGR.
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 group Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump has run a powerful ad in the Toronto Star, one of Canada's biggest daily newspapers. Set against the beautiful backdrop of Lake Huron, the ad points out where Ontario Power Generation (OPG) would like to bury radioactive wastes on its shore.
As reported at the Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump's website, group spokesperson Beverly Fernandez was interviewed by two different news outlets on August 28th, including an extended radio interview. Links are provided.
Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump has also reported that, as of August 25th, 117 resolutions across multiple states and provinces have been passed opposing this insane proposal. The municipalities passing these resolutions of opposition, added together, speak on behalf of 10.8 million people.
And finally, the Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition now stands at over 68,000 signatures. If you haven't already signed it, please do. Also, send it to everyone you know.
The Canadian federal Joint Review Panel overseeing the environmental assessment on OPG's proposed Deep Geologic Repository (or DGR) will hold two weeks of what will very likely be the final round of public hearings, starting at 9am Eastern on Tuesday, September 9th. Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, will testify on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 16th.
The public hearings will take place in Kincardine, Ontario -- the location of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station (NGS), and now targeted for the DGR. The Bruce NGS has a total of 9 reactors on one site, making it one of the world's biggest nuclear power plants. The DGR would bury all of the so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes from 20 reactors across Ontario.
The hearings will be webcast live through the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission website at www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca.
A daily agenda containing the list of presenters will be available each hearing day. Two sessions will be held each day, one in the morning (9:00 a.m. to 12:30p.m.) and one in the afternoon (2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.). Modifications to the schedule will be reflected on the daily agenda, where possible.
The JRP has published the current schedule of presenters.
Once the JRP wraps up this final round of public hearings, it will go behind closed doors for an unspecified length of time, to decide whether or not to approve moving forward with the DGR. Its recommendation will be sent to Canada's federal environment minister, who will then take the decision to Prime Minister Steven Harper's Cabinet, bypassing the Canadian federal Parliament.
The Great Lakes is more than 20% of the world's surface fresh water -- and more than 90% of North America's. It is the drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.
"On a ship moored along the banks of the Saginaw River, U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee will reveal a major plan to protect the Great Lakes from a proposed nuclear waste facility on the Canadian shores of Lake Huron at 12:30 p.m. today...While aboard the Appledore IV Kildee is expected to reveal his plans to introduce a congressional resolution that would put Congress on the record against the proposed construction of the deep geological reservoir for nuclear waste."
The Canadian federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) overseeing Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) is about to hold a final round of public hearings in the DGR's targeted town. The DGR would bury all of the province's so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive waste, from 20 reactors owned by OPG. Kincardine is also "home" to the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, one of the world's single largest nuclear power plants. Beyond Nuclear staff will testify in person, for the second time, before the JRP on Sept. 16th.
NRC file photo of Fermi 2Multiple environmental groups have met an arbitrarily short, 11:59pm Eastern deadline, and officially intervened against the application by DTE (Detroit Edison) to extend the operating license at its Fermi 2 atomic reactor (photo, left) for an additional 20 years. Fermi 2's operating license is currently set to expire in 2025.
DTE's Fermi nuclear power plant, most infamous for the October 5, 1966 "We Almost Lost Detroit" partial meltdown of its Unit 1 experimental plutonium breeder reactor, is located on the Lake Erie shore of southeast Michigan, in Monroe County.
Beyond Nuclear has entered into coalition with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, as well as Don't Waste Michigan, to file four contentions against Fermi 2's license extension.
Two of the contentions concern radioactive waste. The first is about the risk of catastrophic irradiated nuclear fuel storage pool fires. Fermi 2's storage pool holds around 600 tons of irradiated nuclear fuel, more than all four destroyed units at Fukushima Daiichi put together (419 tons). The second radioactive waste contention is about the lack of safety and environmental assurances, since the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "Nuclear Waste Confidence" policy was declared null and void two years ago by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and NRC has not yet replaced it.
Another contention concerns the General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor, and its containment's, long-known, fatal design flaws. Fermi 2 is largest GE Mark I BWR in the world, almost as big as the melted down Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 and 2 reactor cores put together.
The final contention is about the interconnected risks between the age-degraded Fermi 2, and the untested, proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor, including the vulnerability of both sharing a common off-site electricity transmission corridor.
The three groups, joined by Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, as well as the Sierra Club, Michigan Chapter, have also been intervening against the Fermi 3 proposed new reactor since March, 2009.
Both coalitions challenging Fermi 2, and Fermi 3, are represented by Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge.
Citizens Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT) separately filed 14 contentions of its own against the Fermi 2 license extension. CRAFT released a press release.
September 8, 2014