Report OKs nuclear waste facility plan near Lake Huron

[Sip]

Report OKs nuclear waste facility plan near Lake Huron

http://www.freep.com/story/news/201...lear-waste-ontario-power-generation/70937976/

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A panel tasked with reviewing plans for an underground nuclear waste facility near Lake Huron has given the project a positive recommendation.

The Joint Review Panel on Wednesday submitted its nearly 450-page environmental assessment report on Ontario Power Generation's plan to bury 7 million cubic feet of nuclear waste about a half-mile from Lake Huron to the Canadian Minister of the Environment .

The Minister of the Environment made the report public Wednesday evening.

In an executive summary of the report, the panel concludes with:

"…The project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects, taking into account the implementation of the mitigation measures committed to by OPG together with the mitigation measures recommended by the Panel."

The mitigation measures recommended by the panel were not immediately clear.

In a statement, OPG said the company and a team of scientists will "closely analyze the panel's conditions, many of which reinforce our commitment to the stewardship of the Great Lakes."

"The idea for this project came from the community. OPG developed the DGR with one goal in mind: to create permanent, safe store for Ontario's low and intermediate-level nuclear waste," Laurie Swami, OPG's senior vice president said in the statement. "We are pleased with the panel's conclusion that the project will safely protect the environment."

The Joint Review Panel was authorized in January 2012 to do an environmental assessment of OPG's plans to bury low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste about 2,200 feet below ground and 0.6 miles from the shore of Lake Huron in Kincardine, Ontario.

Now that the panel has submitted its recommendation, the Ministry of Environment can, if it chooses to do so, authorize the panel to give a license to prepare the site and construct the deep geologic repository, according to a statement from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

"If the project is authorized to proceed to the next phase of the permitting process, the decision statement will include conditions related to the project that will be legally binding on the proponent," the CEAA statement said.

That final authorization and license could take several more months.

Beverly Fernandez, spokeswoman for Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, said the organization was disappointed in the panel's recommendation.

"We are deeply disappointed that the panel is recommending OPG's plan be approved," Fernandez said.

"This is an intergenerational, non-partisan issue that affects millions of Canadians and Americans. It is a decision that will affect the Great Lakes for the next 100,000 years. The last place to bury and abandon radioactive nuclear waste is beside the largest supply of fresh water on the planet."





Fernandez said the organization has collected about 75,000 signatures on a petition to stop OPG's plans. She said 154 communities in the U.S. and Canada oppose the Kincardine nuclear waste dump or any nuclear waste dump in the Great Lakes basin.

State Sen. Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair Township, and Representative Dan Lauwers, R-Brockway Twp., have spoken out strongly against OPG's plan and recently introduced new legislation to stop it.

 

[Sip]

This needs to be stopped. Lets get to it!

 

[creature]

this kind of of shit is what convinces me there is actual fucking evil...

when humanity starts doing shit that will poison the groundwater, the aquifer or future groundwater that needs to percolate up through contamination, not to mention something as brainfucked as this, it just makes me think that there is something that is trying to kill *life* itself..

i used to hope that humanity would just fuck itself up & fade, & just leave whatever came out of the ruins alone..

but nooooo..... we have to go under fucking ground & poison shit so that even when every effective trace of us is gone, our SHIT is still seeping into the ecosystem..

i'm tired..

i am fucking tired...

 

[sandpaper cowboy]

this kind of of shit is what convinces me there is actual fucking evil...

when humanity starts doing shit that will poison the groundwater, the aquifer or future groundwater that needs to percolate up through contamination, not to mention something as brainfucked as this, it just makes me think that there is something that is trying to kill *life* itself..

Deleted

 

[Sip]

I'm going up there after this month. I can't wait 'till they start building shit, so I can throw a wrench in this fucker and make them pay. We need warriors to put a stop to this, to make every centimeter of dirt so costly that they NEVER think of building a waste dump near the great lakes again. The sad thing is, I'm pro nuclear energy.

It's very frustrating to me that people think their 75,000 signatures matter. It's just something they do so they don't feel guilty about doing nothing.

 

[dyingslowlyeveryday]

To be fair, this proposal is better than the current situation. The waste is already stored in aboveground concrete warehouses right next to the proposed dump, and this is all on the site of Canada's largest nuclear power plant. Storing waste in concrete warehouses surrounded by a large rock formation deep in the earth is at least a step in the right direction.

 

[Odin]

There is a real good film on this subject.

 

[Sip]

Thanks for the video and the information, guys. I didn't really know much about the situation. Just kind of saw the article and assumed the worse!

 

[Odin]

The film for the trailer I posted does a good job examining the long term dangers of discovery by future civilizations. This radioactive waste can be dangerous up to a 100,000 years. Nothing man has built has lasted a significant fraction of that... though in terms of geology its still the blink of an eye...

So a major concern is how do you prevent future societies, that may go up but also may go down in technology, how can you guarantee some far off society wont get curious and dig up and expose themselves and the environment to the danger?

As for immediate concerns, I question the reason behind locating the repository so close to the lakes. Although they will be considerably deeper than the lake bed itself in bedrock.... 500-600 feet compared to 2200 feet??(from another article) that whole area is part of the north american craton/canadian shield. Part of the core(s) of the continent so to speak. These parts of continents have deep lithospheric roots and have remained stable comparatively through the eons of continental plate tectonics... And As such it has basement rock that is much older... billions of years vs millions of years old.

Even so... All that aside... I have no idea why they would dig so close to a major water source.... perhaps it's easier to access the layer of rock they wish. Or perhaps it is an evil plan... fuck... I wish I had a report on the location. And need to study more geology...

I just don't get why they would not choose a site at least farther north of the lakes... plenty of bedrock in canada... I bet it's got to do with greed money and evil... fuckers...

 

[dyingslowlyeveryday]

So a major concern is how do you prevent future societies, that may go up but also may go down in technology, how can you guarantee some far off society wont get curious and dig up and expose themselves and the environment to the danger?

Sounds pretty cool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant#Warning_messages_for_future_humans

 

[Odin]

Very interesting... ... from the article on the New Mexico nuclear waste facility...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant#Warning_messages_for_future_humans

Waste is placed in rooms 2,150 feet (660 m) underground that have been excavated within a 3,000 feet (910 m) thick salt formation (Salado and Castile Formations) where salt tectonics have been stable for more than 250 million years[citation needed]. Because of plasticity effects, salt and water will flow to any cracks that develop, a major reason why the area was chosen as a host medium for the WIPP project. Because drilling or excavation in the area will be hazardous long after the area is actively used, there are plans to construct markers to deter inadvertent human intrusion for the next ten thousand years

Salt's plasticity is very useful... still the 250 mil year geo record (for the new mexico location) is not comparable to craton stability in billions of years. Plus as useful as salt plasticity sounds in sealing space around and encasing nuclear waste... could this also be a weakness? This makes me feel that the Onkolo site in finland built in granite bedrock (from the documentary I posted) is far superior... not counting the future society/semantics problem...


Now I'm wondering if the canadian choice of location near lake huron has to do with salt deposits. I don't remember where but I believe there are great salt deposits under the great lakes...

I got this article doesn't mentions huron I think but there is mention of canada...

Or nearby mines in Ohio and Canada, which ship their road salt through the Great Lakes.

I'd like to post the whole article but large... Check it out great photos...

http://gizmodo.com/the-incredible-urban-salt-mines-hiding-underneath-our-f-1516664767


Hmm... anyway its worth to note that encasing nuclear waster in geological salt deposits has already been problematic. For the New Mexico WIPP site there was a radiation leak already back in February of 2014...due to a ceiling collapse, a suggested theory...

On February 15, 2014, authorities ordered workers to shelter in place at the facility after air monitors had detected unusually high radiation levels at 11:30pm the previous day. None of the facility's 139 workers were underground at the time of the incident[15][16] Later, trace amounts of airborne radiation consisting of americium and plutonium particles were discovered above ground, a half mile from the facility.[

Humans might just be outmatched in the long term simply by the inherent danger of nuclear waste.

Can you ever know if you have taken enough precautions?

 

[Sip]

No, no you can't. All it takes is one 100yr eathquake, one incorrect mathematical equation, one unaccounted for variable and you've poluted the largest freshwater lakes in the world so thoroughly that they are useful for nothing ever again. Fuck that.