Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
7/17/2015
Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) last week successfully attached an amendment to the Senate’s Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations bill that would invoke an International Joint Commission review of Ontario Power Generation’s proposed deep geologic repository in Kincardine. OPG plans to dispose of intermediate and low-level radioactive waste in the repository, but the proposal has drawn the ire of many U.S. residents due to its proximity to the Great Lakes, one of the world’s largest sources of fresh water. The amended bill, which cleared the Appropriations Committee last week, would require the Department of State to request an International Joint Commission review of OPG’s proposal, and to urge the government of Canada to postpone the project until the review is complete. “This dangerous plan to store 7 million cubic feet of nuclear waste less than a mile from the shores of the Great Lakes could cause irreparable damage to our nation’s most precious natural resource and the source of drinking water for millions in Illinois,” Kirk said in a statement. “We are one step closer to saving the Great Lakes, the crown jewel of the Midwest, from being polluted by toxic nuclear waste.”
Kirk wrote to both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry earlier this year to request that they invoke the IJC review, but no action from the administration followed. There is also a pending resolution in both the House and Senate, introduced by members of Michigan’s congressional delegation, that would denounce the proposed repository. Canada’s Minister of the Environment is reviewing the OPG proposal after receiving a environmental report from the Joint Review Panel charged with overseeing the safety case for the project. The panel recommended that the design meet public health and environmental standards. The minister plans to make a yes/no decision by December on the suitability of the project to move forward.
The proposed repository would be located beneath OPG’s Bruce nuclear facility in Kincardine. OPG plans on storing low and intermediate-level 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.
