NDP urges Ontario premier to put the brakes on radioactive steam generator shipment

The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) has urged Ontario provincial premier McGuinty to postpone any permits for shipping 16 radioactive steam generators from Bruce Nuclear Power Plant to the Port of Owen Sound -- where they would be loaded onto a boat for shipment across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to Sweden -- until the province has a solid "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive waste management policy. The NDP also condemned the "special arrangement" between Bruce Power and the Canadian Nuclear Safety (sic) Commission which has been approved, despite this shipment's lack of containers for the radioactive waste, as well as the amount of radioactivity aboard the single vessel, both of which are in violation of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety standards.

U.S. agency could stop Canadian radioactive waste shipment on Great Lakes

Eartha Jane Melzer at the Michigan Messenger has reported that the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) could block Bruce Power's proposal to ship 16 radioactive steam generators through U.S. territorial waters on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, despite Canadian Nuclear Safety (sic) Commission approval of the plan. She quotes Terry Lodge, pro bono attorney for the binational environmental coalition opposing the shipment. Terry first wrote PHMSA on behalf of the coalition nearly five months ago.

Mohawk Nation communities oppose CNSC approval of radioactive waste shipment on Great Lakes and St. Lawrence

The Mohawk Nation communities of Akwesasne, Kahnawake, and Tyendinaga have issued a strongly worded statement condemning the Canadian Nuclear Safety (sic) Commission's approval of Bruce Power's application to ship 16 radioactive steam generators through their territories via the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to Sweden for so-called "recycling."

U.K. Nuclear-Free Local Authorities speak out against Canadian radioactive waste shipment

UK NFLA logo.In a media release, the U.K. Nuclear-Free Local Authorities have spoken out strongly against Bruce Power's proposed shipment of 16 radioactive steam generators, which would pass through Irish and British waters on their way to Studsvik Nuclear for so-called "recycling" in Sweden. In addition to contacting the British and Irish governments, the UK NFLA is also contacting the governments of Norway and Sweden to urge them to not approve the shipment entering their waters.

Environmentalists and municipalities vow to keep fighting against radioactive steam generator shipment on the Great Lakes

A ship between the downtowns of Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario show how narrow the Detroit River is.The Windsor Star reports that Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, for one, will keep on resisting the shipment of radioactive waste on the Great Lakes, despite the Canadian Nuclear Safety (sic) Commission's rubberstamp last Friday of plans by Bruce Power to transport 16 school bus sized radioactive steam generators, each weighing 100 tons, on a single boat from Lake Huron, through the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Welland Canal, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden for so-called "recycling." The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Cities Initiative has determined that -- under Canadian federal law -- a sinking of the shipment, and breaching of just a small number of plutonium-contaminated steam generators, particularly in a river, could release enough radioactivity to necessitate radiological emergency measures, such as shut down of adjacent drinking water intakes. As shown by the photo at the left (provided by Citizens Environment Alliance), the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor is not only narrow (Detroit's name comes from the French word détroit, meaning strait, after all!), it is also shallow. A radioactive release in such a location would not be much diluted by the small volume of water in the river, increasing the accident's risks to people and the environment. The Cities Initiative has made this point repeatedly to CNSC, which has duly ignored it.