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Canadian plan for waste dump could threaten safety of Great Lakes – say US critics

an underground nuclear waste dump in limestone poses a major risk to millions of people.

Nuclear option: US critics balk at Canadian plan to bury radioactive waste near Lake Huron By Cristina Corbin May 08, 2015 FoxNews.com A Canadian power company’s plan to bury nuclear waste 150 miles from Detroit and less than a mile from Lake Huron has Americans fearful the Great Lakes – and some 40 million people who get their drinking water from them – could be put at risk.

A Canadian advisory panel submitted a report Wednesday that concluded the project would cause no significant environmental harm — despite strong opposition by Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., and several other lawmakers, who argue the waste plan is a major safety threat to the Great Lakes. The plan, if approved by Canada’s Minister of the Environment, would allow millions of gallons of low-level nuclear waste to be stored 2,200 feet below the earth’s surface.

The site in question is Kincardine, Ontario, which sits at the shores of Lake Huron and is about 150 miles from Detroit. Despite its proximity to the border, U.S. approval of the project is not required.

Kildee, of Flint, is sponsoring a nonbinding congressional resolution opposing the project.

If the plan proceeds, Ontario Power Generation — a local corporation that owns other nuclear power plants in Ontario — will build a permanent underground nuclear waste depository. The facility could store up to 52 million gallons of low-to-intermediate level nuclear waste underground, according to Kildee, and the waste would remain active for thousands of years……….

“Nuclear waste is hazardous material that will remain radioactive for generations, and no person, panel or country can ever say with absolute certainty that there is no environmental risks,” he said. “…if an accident were to happen on the shores of the Great Lakes, a nuclear radiation release could endanger the freshwater supply for over 40 million people, both in the U.S. and Canada.”

Kildee also seized on Canada’s past objection to a similar plan proposed by the U.S. decades ago……..

U.S. environmental groups, meanwhile, say an underground nuclear waste dump in limestone poses a major risk to millions of people.”There’s a risk this is going to get into the water,” Jim Riccio, a nuclear power analyst with Greenpeace USA, told FoxNews.com. “You don’t have to be burying this waste underneath Lake Huron.”

“There are better places to put the waste than underneath the water that Canadians and Americans rely upon,” Riccio added, claiming the panel’s recommendation of such a nuclear dumping site underscores a “lack of foresight this industry has displayed throughout its history.”……… Cristina Corbin is a reporter for FoxNews.com in New York. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaCorbin http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/05/08/nuclear-option-us-critics-balk-at-canadian-plan-to-bury-radioactive-waste-near/

May 9, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general