MICH. SENATORS SEEK KERRY’S HELP ON CANADIAN REPOSITORY

Two Michigan U.S. senators wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday, asking for his intervention to stop a proposed Canadian nuclear waste repository located near the Great Lakes. The senators, Debbie Stabenow (D- Mich.) and Carl Levin (D- Mich.), asked Kerry to talk with the International Joint Commission, a board set up between the U.S. and Canada to settle disputes between the two nations, about the matter. “We believe that the decision to store such large quantities of nuclear waste along the shores of an internationally shared resource must be thoroughly reviewed and considered by both countries,” the letter said. “We strongly urge you to engage the International Joint Commission on this important topic and also encourage the Canadian government to reconsider placing a nuclear waste dump near the shores of Lake Huron.”

 

The planned repository by Ontario Power Generation, which would only take low and intermediate level waste, would be located less than a mile from the Great Lakes, one of the world’s largest sources of fresh water. OPG plans on storing low and intermediate waste from its Bruce, Pickering, and Darlington power stations at the proposed repository, which would be located 680 meters (approximately 744 yards) below the surface in an isolated rock formation of shale and limestone. Michigan state lawmakers voiced concerns over the project earlier this month during a month long public comment period on the proposed site.