Beyond Nuclear joins call to oust Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission president to protect Great Lakes

The Great LakesBeyond Nuclear has joined with a coalition of U.S. and Canadian environmental groups in calling for the ouster of the beleaguered head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), Dr. Michael Binder, for acting as a cheerleader for the nuclear power industry, instead of protecting health, safety, and the environment, as is the agency's mandate. The coalition's call comes after a scathing report by the Canadian Federal Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development, documenting significant failures by the CNSC. The call for the ouster of Dr. Binder as CNSC president also comes after CNSC whistle-blowers alleged that vital safety-significant information has repeatedly been withheld from the CNSC commissioners by senior agency staff. An internal agency review ordered by Binder dismissed the whistle-blower allegations, but independent nuclear experts slammed CNSC's whitewash as a "sham." Beyond Nuclear's many interventions against Canadian radioactive risks to the Great Lakes (photo, right) -- drinking water supply for 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations -- includes: opposition to a radioactive waste dump targeted at the Great Lakes shore; resistance against unprecedented truck shipments to the U.S. of highly radioactive liquid waste; and objections to proposed new Canadian atomic reactors, as well as extended operations at dangerously age-degraded Canadian nuclear facilities, most located on the Great Lakes shores. More