------------------------------ Original Message ------------------------------
From: "Michael Mariotte" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Michael Mariotte
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Action Alert

Please circulate the following sign-on statement to your email lists. To
sign on, simply email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
your name, title, organization, and full contact information.
Individuals are also welcome to sign. Please sign on by noon on
Wednesday, June 18th so that we can submit our group comment to the
Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency by the official deadline later
that day.

If you'd like to submit additional comments, email them to
DGR. [EMAIL PROTECTED] no later than Wednesday, June 18th.

See
http://www.acee-ceaa.gc.ca/050/DocHTMLContainer_e.cfm?DocumentID=26204
for additional information.

Thanks!

---Kevin Kamps
Great Lakes United Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force
cell 240-462-3216
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


No Radioactive Waste Dump
in the Heart of the Great Lakes!

The proposal to build a deep underground dump (DUD) for radioactive
wastes on the shoreline of the Great Lakes is unacceptable.  Water is
the most likely dispersal medium for toxic materials in general, and for
radioactive wastes in particular.

Nevertheless, that's what is being considered at the Bruce nuclear
complex on the Canadian side of Lake Huron.  The DUD would be located
just over one kilometre (less than one mile) from the Lake, and would
house all of the radioactive wastes from 20 commercial nuclear power
reactors in Ontario -- with the exception of the irradiated nuclear fuel.

It was recently reported that the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management
Organization (NWMO) wants to manage the DUD project.  But the NWMO deals
exclusively with the long-term management of irradiated nuclear fuel,
and has nothing whatever to do with other categories of nuclear waste
materials.  Does the NWMO's involvement mean that the proposed DUD will
eventually become a permanent repository for high-level radioactive
waste -- making it the "Yucca Mountain" of the Great Lakes region?

The Bruce nuclear complex currently hosts nine reactors (one of them
permanently shut down), with proposals for four more. This would make it
the largest nuclear power complex in the world. Already there are 500
outdoor silos for the "interim storage" of irradiated nuclear fuel about
one kilometre from Lake Huron, and there are plans to build 2,000 more.

Since the DUD is only 50 miles from Michigan across Lake Huron, leakage
of radioactivity from the dump could directly affect tens of millions of
residents in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, and contaminate
the drinking water in Port Huron, Sarnia, Detroit, Windsor, Toledo,
Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Toronto and countless other communities
downstream.

Thus, this DUD proposal is not just a Canadian issue, but an
international one.  In 1986, Canada protested when the U.S. proposed a
high-level radioactive waste dump in Vermont because it was too close to
the Canadian border; that proposed dump was subsequently cancelled. Now
it is time for U.S. residents to speak out. The Canadian DUD proposal
sets a dangerous precedent for the establishment of perpetually
hazardous facilities on the Great Lakes, and impacts people on both
sides of the border.

The successful emplacement of the DUD for so-called "low" and
"intermediate" level radioactive wastes from across Ontario - and
potentially from the rest of Canada - will create a threat to the Great
Lakes watershed for generations to come. It will also increase the
likelihood of the Bruce site becoming a permanent disposal dump for
high-level radioactive wastes (i.e. irradiated nuclear fuel), which
would increase the risks by many orders of magnitude.

Alarming as this proposal is, the process for assessing its
environmental impact is also cause for grave concern.  In Canada,
environmental panels reviewing proposed nuclear facilities have always
been independent of the nuclear establishment -- until now.  But for the
DUD, the Government of Canada intends to place the review panel under
the control of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) which is
the regulatory authority for licensing nuclear facilities in Canada.

Six months ago, the President of the CNSC was fired by the Canadian
federal government for being too strict in her enforcement of reactor
safety regulations. The new CNSC President has clear instructions to
fast-track all nuclear regulatory approval processes. No environmental
assessment panel will be credible if it is dominated by this highly
politicized regulatory agency.

Despite the conflict of interest, the CNSC stands ready to chair the
environmental assessment panel and to fill two of its three positions.
CNSC's domination of the Full Panel Review is unprecedented, and will
undermine the panel's credibility. We urge CNSC's exclusion from the
Panel, so the panel's independence is assured.

We ask that the public comment deadline be extended for six months
beyond June 18th.  Given the longevity and the unprecedented nature of
the hazard that the DUD represents for the entire Great Lakes ecosystem,
as well as the minimal outreach to the United States and Native
American/First Nations that the Canadian federal government has
undertaken, this extension request is reasonable.

Sincerely,

Gordon Edwards
(Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, Montreal, Quebec)

Michael Keegan
(Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, Monroe, Michigan)

Co-Chairs
Great Lakes United Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force



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