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Tuesday
Jun072011

How much high-level radioactive waste is currently stored on the Great Lakes shoreline?

The Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River represent 20% of the world's surface fresh water, and provide drinking water for 40 million Americans, Canadians, and numerous Indigenous Peoples in Native American/First Nations.Well over 50,000 tons on the Canada side, and nearly 14,000 tons on the U.S. side (not even counting the high-level radioactive waste glass logs at the long-shuttered West Valley, NY reprocessing facility). Kevin Kamps calculated these figures -- including breakdowns for how much is at each nuclear power plant on the U.S. side -- for use at the May 14, 2011 International Roundtable on Great Lakes Nuclear Issues in Dearborn, Michigan -- see his powerpoint entry below. Of course, this mountain of radioactive waste stored on the Great Lakes shoreline -- with nowhere to go -- will continue to grow, and significantly higher -- the longer atomic reactors continue to operate. Given the unacceptable risks, they need to be abolished, replaced with renewables and efficiency, and the generation of high-level radioactive waste stopped.