nuclear-news

A month after the Joint Review Panel decided that the best place for a Canadian nuclear waste dump is less than a mile from the shores of Lake Huron, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is calling for public comment on environmental conditions that would be imposed on Ontario Power Generation if the project gets a final go-ahead. The CEAA made the announcement on June 3.The general public, Aboriginal groups and registered participants in the Deep Geological Review process have 90 days to comment on 14 pages of “potential conditions.” The deadline is Sept. 1.

As a result, the agency has extended the timeline for a final decision by Minister of the Environment Leona Aglukkaq on the Environmental Assessment of the dump by 90 days. The deadline is now Dec. 2.

“It is interesting that the Minister of the Environment’s decision on the nuclear waste dump is being postponed from Sept. 3 until December, which falls after the federal election in October,” said Beverly Fernandez, founder of the Canadian organization Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump.

Critics of nuclear power were aghast at the Joint Panel’s decision in May to endorse the dump.

Western Michigan native Kevin Kamps works as a nuclear waste specialist for the Maryland-based Beyond Nuclear, an anti-nuclear group that supports renewable energy and nuclear disarmament. Kamps condemned the Joint Panel’s decision to endorse the dump, calling OPG’s proposal “insane” and labeling it “a declaration of war against the Great Lakes.”

Kamps is expected to speak about ways to stop the dump at 7 p.m. June 16 at the Donald Dodge Auditorium at the St. Clair County Administration Building, located at 200 Grand River Ave. in Port Huron.

“Great Lakes Waterkeepers and Waterkeeper Alliance oppose this project, which could threaten the drinking water supply of 40 million Americans and Canadians,” Detroit Riverkeeper Bob Burns said in a statement on May 27.

Burns said the dump violates the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which the United States and Canada updated in 2012, pledging to keep the lakes free of threats to water quality.

The ‘potential conditions’

If the Canadian government approves the building of the nuclear waste dump, OPG will have to meet a variety of conditions to ensure that the environment is protected against an array of dangers posed by the construction, operation and closure of the dump.

The 14-page document outlines a number of general conditions and 12 specific environmental conditions which OPG may have to fulfill if the dump is approved.

The specific environmental conditions include managing storm water runoff, avoiding adverse effects to fish and fish habitat associated with culvert installation at the North and South Railway Ditches and monitoring the impact of the project on MacPherson Bay in Lake Huron, just off the coast of the Bruce Nuclear Generation Site, as well as protecting migratory birds, their nests and eggs, protecting the land and resources for traditional uses, including the insurance that the Saugeen Ojibway Nation have continued access to the Jiibegmegoong burial grounds, protecting air quality, protecting the health of residents and Aboriginal groups against radiation exposure, excessive noise, vibration and accidents, preventing at-risk turtles and snakes from entering the project site, protecting the existing plant and wildlife communities against radiation and other threats related to the project, protecting groundwater, managing the waste rock that is mined to create the 2,200-foot-deep repository for the nuclear waste and preventing adverse leachate, undertaking reasonable measures to prevent accidents and malfunctions that would endanger humans and the environment, and preparing a strategy that will minimize the impact of the project on climate change.

Individuals submitting comments must address one or more of the “potential conditions.”

All comments received will be considered public. Written comments in either official language should be sent by Sept. 1 by mail to: National Programs, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, 22nd Floor, 160 Elgin St., Ottawa ON K1A 0H3; or by email to ceaa.conditions.acee@ceaa-acee.gc.ca.

Opponents keep up critiques

Meanwhile, opponents are keeping up the pressure. “Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump will continue to drive awareness and opposition and will work with the increasing number of politicians and organizations in Canada and the U.S. who are committed to protecting the Great Lakes and future generations by opposing the nuclear waste dump,” said Fernandez.