Coalition submits additional comments to CNSC opposing radioactive steam generator shipment on Great Lakes

A broad environmental and public interest coalition of groups from both the U.S. and Canada has again voiced its opposition to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) opposing Bruce Power's proposal to ship 16 radioactive steam generators on the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean to Sweden for so-called "recycling." A media release was issued by the coalition. Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility and Canadian co-chair of the Great Lakes United Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force submitted supplemental comments, again emphasizing that the proposed shipment's cargo is mostly plutonium, hardly "low-level" radioactive waste of "no risk" to the public and environment as alleged by CNSC. Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear, and a member of the GLU Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force, also submitted supplementary comments (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3), emphasizing the nationwide and growing coalition calling for "hardened on-site storage" for radioactive wastes rather than risky transport for no good reason -- such as so-called "recycling" of radioactive materials into consumer products, which carries its own radiological risks for the population at large. Michael Keegan, chair of the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, called upon CNSC for a Full Panel Review, the top level environmental assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Ziggy Kleinau, on behalf of the Bruce Peninsula Environment Group, called for an independent full panel review five years ago, and also submitted supplemental comments yesterday.

Video of I Have a Scream action at Keep Fear Alive rally

Radioactive cargo to travel the Great Lakes is mostly plutonium

Beyond Nuclear has joined with the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR, Quebec), Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (Michigan), and Radioactive Waste Management Associates (Vermont) to issue a press release warning that Bruce [Nuclear] Power's and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's description of 16 steam generators targeted to transit the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River as "low-level radioactive waste" is misleading. The cargo is actually mostly ultra-hazardous plutonium, as explained in a concise one-page backgrounder prepared by Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of CCNR.

50,000 protesters in Germany against radioactive waste transport

Inspiring stories continue to flood in from Germany where 50,000 protesters turned out on Saturday in opposition to the highly radioactive waste transport that arrived from France's La Hague reprocessing facility. Germany has already been the scene of 100,000 in the streets of Berlin to oppose reactor license extension along with the 75-mile-long human chain last April.  Although 20,000 police were deployed during the waste transport protest, National Public Radio reports that the police were largely sympathetic to the protesters' point of view. Said the NPR report: "Police trade unions complained in unusually hard terms that they have been "scapegoated" by politicians, who "made a fatal mistake" when they extended nuclear plants life spans, and that citizens are right to protest." (Photo: Copyright Martin Leers).

Update on November 9, 2010 by admin

And a vide report from the Associated Press.

Video update of German protest against radioactive train transport