A Michigan congressman is responding to a study released earlier this week by Ontario Power Generation on its proposed nuclear waste depository.
Daniel Kildee said the proposal is too risky.
“Burying nuclear waste less than a mile from Lake Huron just doesn't make sense and is too much of a risk to take, especially considering nuclear material remains radioactive for thousands of years,” Kildee said in a statement.
“I continue to work with Democrats and Republicans to call attention to this threat to our Great Lakes, and I implore that Canada considers a different location for a site that is outside the Great Lakes basin.
“Surely in the vast land mass that comprises Canada, there must be a better place to permanently store nuclear waste than on the shores of Lake Huron.”
The statement comes after the OPG released new information saying alternate sites for a proposed nuclear waste depository along the shore of Lake Huron would cost more money and increase environmental problems.
OPG was asked by the Minister of the Environment back on Feb. 18 to investigate alternative sites for the project.
Two alternate locations - one in crystalline rock and one in sedimentary rock - were studied by OPG, along with the incremental costs and risks associated with the off-site transportation.
The study determined the prehistoric rock on the Bruce Power site near Kincardine is the ideal location.
The repository would sit 2,230 feet below the surface and less than a mile from the shore at Bruce Power.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is expected to review OPG’s latest submission and take public comments on it.
