Beyond Nuclear to testify in Canada against radioactive waste dumps targeted at the Great Lakes shoreline

OPG's Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, and the proposed DUD1, are located just 50 miles across Lake Huron from Michigan's Thumb.Last month, Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, pre-submitted written testimony, as well as a Power Point Presentation, to the Canadian federal Joint Review Panel (JRP) regarding Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) proposed DGR (Deep Geologic Repository, or, more aptly, DUD, for Deep Underground Dump). Kevin will testify in person at the JRP proceedings in Kincardine, Ontario on Monday, September 23rd. Kincardine is the "company town" for OPG's Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, with a total of 9 atomic reactors (1 early prototype permanently shutdown, and 8 still-operable commercial reactors), one of the largest nuclear power plants in the entire world.

What can you do to help oppose this "declaration of war against the Great Lakes," this insane proposal to bury radioactive wastes on the shore of 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? Sign onto the Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Waste Dump online petition, and forward it to your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc.! The petition has nearly 28,000 signatures--let's keep that number growing!

Angela Bischoff of Ontario Clean Air Alliance has organized an event in Toronto on Saturday, September 21st, entitled "From Fukushima to Ontario: Understanding the Current Nuclear Crisis." Kevin will present, as will Shawn-Patrick Stensil of Greenpeace Canada, and Don Hancock of Southwest Research Information Center. Don serves on Northwatch's DGR expert witness team.

Brennain Lloyd of Northwatch has also organized additional public events on Sunday, September 22nd (organized by Jutta Splettstoesser in Ripley, another municipality targeted for DUD2--see below) and Monday, September 23rd on the Lake Huron shoreline, focused on the proposed DGR nearby. Again, Kevin and Don will present.

"The DGR" that is subject to the current JRP hearings is often referred to as DGR1, as it could be but the camel's nose under the tent for DGR2. DUD1 is proposed for Ontario's so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes from 20 commercial reactors across the province. DUD2 would be for high-level radioactive wastes (HLRW, also called irradiated nuclear fuel) from Canada's 22 commercial atomic reactors (20 in Ontario, 1 in Quebec, and 1 in New Brunswick).

As shown by the Great Lakes Nuclear Hot Spots Map, prepared by the International Institute of Concern for Public Health's Anna Tilman, DGR1 is proposed for the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station site, less than a mile from the waters of Lake Huron. But DGR2 is proposed for the very same area. A half-dozen communities near the Lake Huron shore, mostly populated by Bruce nuclear workers, have "volunteered" to be considered for the national Canadian HLRW dump.

Those municipalities are already on the receiving end of millions of dollars in "incentives" in exchange for their support of the DUD1 proposal. Now, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is also in negotiations with municipalities in that same area around Bruce regarding DUD2. The DUD2 targeted at the Lake Huron shore near Bruce is in competition with other "willing host" municipalities in or near the Lake Huron and Superior basins, further north and west from Bruce, municipalities further north in Ontario, as well as municipalities in Saskatchewan, as shown on the Great Lakes Nuclear Hot Spots Map.

NWMO, comprised of representatives from the Canadian nuclear power industry itself, has been charged by the Canadian federal government with finding a "solution" for the HLRW problem. Hence, NWMO's search for a DUD2 dumpsite. However, NWMO also took over control of the DUD1 proposal (to bury "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes at Bruce) in recent years. This begs the question: will DUD1 and DUD2 be merged into a single DUD? The cost-savings of merging two separate but nearby DUDs, each costing billions or tens of billions of dollars to dig, makes this merger seem all the more likely, despite assurances by DUD1 proponents to the contrary.

A DUD3 has even reared its ugly head! It appears that OPG hopes to double the capacity of DUD1, from 200,000 cubic meters of "low-level" radioactive operations and refurbishment wastes, by adding another 200,000 cubic meters of "low level" radioactive decommissioning wastes.

DGR1 + DGR2 + DGR3 = a real DUD!

On a hopeful note, such DUDs can be stopped. Tom Lawson of Port Hope, Ontario has recently published a book (Crazy Caverns: How one small community challenged a technocrat juggernaut...and won!) about the successful grassroots resistance against a Lake Ontario shoreline DUD proposed, but stopped, in the 1990s.