Mark Kirk, the Republican Senator from Illinois is imploring President Barack Obama to step into the controversy surrounding the planned deep underground geologic repository to store nuclear waste material for thousands of years. The problem for many people, is the proximity of the site to Lake Huron.
Kirk is co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force, and in his May 22nd letter to President Obama, he urges the president to “address a recent threatening proposal to permanently store toxic nuclear waste under the Great Lakes Basin, the source of drinking water for 30 million people.”
Kirk would like Obama to refer the Ontario government’s plan to the International Joint Commission, a body established in 1909 to prevent and resolve disputes over shared waters.
“We’re advocating rolling stewardship.”
Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, says it was not so long ago that a Canadian politician sent a letter to U.S. authorities rejecting a similar plan within 40 miles of Canada. Back in 1985, then Foreign Affairs Minister Joe Clark, expressed the country’s displeasure with American plans to build a nuclear waste repository in Vermont. Edwards says it’s now time for the American government to speak up on the Canadian plans, that will adversely affect everyone around the basin, should there be a problem. 143 municipalities have passed resolutions protesting the plan.
ListenOntario Power Generation, owned by the provincial government, is moving forward on a plan to bury all the nuclear wastes from its 20 nuclear power reactors. This excludes irradiated nuclear fuel, but includes all the contaminated equipment and radioactive core components.
Canada’s Environmental Review Panel recommended approval of the project and theEnvironment Minister, Leona Aglukkaq, has delayed a final decision until after the October 19th federal election.
In the meantime, Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel has said the wishes of the people cannot be ignored. Chicago passed a unaimous resolution opposing the planned location of this DGR.
For Gordon Edwards, one of the most objectionable aspects of the plan, is the idea of eventually abandoning the site. Wherever it may be located, according to Edwards it should never be abandoned. It has to be safeguarded and observed. Edwards says this is why the CCNR advocates a plan of ‘rolling stewardship’. whereby one generation educates the next in the watchful care of such a toxic site. It can never be abandoned.
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