Après avoir démantelé sa centrale nucléaire dans les années 1990, Bruce Power pense recycler 16 génératrices en les envoyant en Suède. 90% des métaux seront recyclés là-bas et le reste trop radioactif reviendra au point de départ, en Ontario. Voir mon entrée de blog du 31 juillet 2010 pour plus de détails et une photo d'une des génératrices ici: http://lesamisdurichelieu.blogspot.com/2010/07/des-gros-dechets-nucleaires-vogueront.html
La route projetée est le Lac Huron, la rivière St.Clair River, le lac St.Clair, la rivière Detroit, le lac Érié, le lac Ontario, la voie maritime du Saint-Laurent, le fleuve Saint-Laurent lui-même et enfin l'océan Atlantique.
Ce qui fait peur aux résidents aux États-Unis et au Canada, c'est le matériel à l'intérieur des génératrices de la grosseur d'un autobus de ville: des déchêts nucléaires. Les environnementalistes et les élus disent qu'un accident pourrait contaminer les lacs, une source d'eau potable. Ils sont aussi inquiets: ce serait un précédent et d'autres déchêts nucléaires pourraient commencer à naviguer les Grands Lacs.
Les municipalités des 2 côtés des rives de la route proposée sont insultées de ne pas avoir été consultées. Elles ont été mises au courant grâce à un environnementaliste du Michigan qui lisait des documents de la Commission canadienne de Sûreté nucléaire. Trois maires de villes canadiennes et deux politiciens du Michigan s'opposent au projet. Une pétition en ligne a déjà été signée par 60 groupes environnementaux et 2,717 personnes.
La Commission canadienne ne prévoyait pas faire de consultation publique mais devant le tollé publique, siégera une audience le 29 septembre. Le permis de transport n'avait pas besoin d'audience publique puisque les génératrices sont considérées comme ayant un niveau de radiation faible. De tels permis sont émis par un officier désigné de la Commission, pas le comité formé de 8 membres.
"Çà devrait être arrêté" dit Kay Cumbow, une environnementaliste de Brown City près de Lapeer qui était l'une des premières personnes à découvrir le projet de transport de matières nucléaires. "Nous avons mieux à faire que de mettre les Grans Lacs à risque."
Après ce chargement, Bruce Power prévoit envoyer 16 autres génératrices en Suède dans un temps futur.
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"Nuclear waste shipping on Lakes protested
A plan to ship 16 steam generators on the Detroit River and Great Lakes has sparked an international outcry. What alarms residents on the U.S. and Canadian sides of the waterways is the material inside the generators -- nuclear waste. The generators, which are the size of a city bus, were used by a nuclear power plant in Canada that now wants to send them to a recycling plant in Sweden.
Environmentalists and elected officials said a shipping mishap could contaminate the lakes, a source of drinking water in the region. They're also worried the plan could lead to more radioactive waste being transported on the Great Lakes. "It's a bad idea," said Michael Keegan, chairman of the Monroe-based Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes. "It sets a dangerous precedent."
U.S. and Canadian towns along the proposed route are miffed they were never told about the plan. Alerted by a Michigan environmentalist perusing the records of Canada's nuclear regulatory agency, three Canadian mayors and two Michigan state legislators opposed the shipment. An online petition against the project was signed by 60 environmental groups and 2,517 people.
It's one more threat to the Great Lakes, which already contends with pollution and Asian carp, said state Rep. Sarah Roberts, D-St. Clair Shores. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which is deciding whether to approve the shipment, originally didn't plan to seek public input. After several weeks of criticism, however, it scheduled a public hearing for Sept. 29.
Bruce Power, the Canadian firm that operates the power plant, said the shipment is safe. The radiation is limited to the interior of the generators, whose openings have been sealed to prevent anything from leaking out, said spokesman John Peevers. And the amount of nuclear material is small, he added. The 16 generators were removed from the Bruce Power plant in the mid-1990s and placed in a concrete warehouse near the firm's headquarters in Tiverton, Ontario, which is on Lake Huron across from the Michigan Thumb. They were going to stay there permanently, but Bruce Power learned about a Swedish company that could recycle 90 percent of the machines, Peevers said.
The recycling process reduces the radioactivity of the material, which can then be used as scrap. The remaining 10 percent is too contaminated to recycle and will be returned to Bruce Power for storage.
According to the plan, a freighter would carry the generators down Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River and then across the Atlantic Ocean.
The permit didn't require a public hearing because generators are considered to have a low level of radiation, said commission spokesman Aurele Gervais. Such permits are issued by a designated officer from the commission, not the eight-member board.
"It should be stopped," said Kay Cumbow, an environmentalist from Brown City near Lapeer, who was one of the first people to discover the proposed shipment. "We have better things to do than put the Great Lakes at risk."
After this shipment, Bruce Power eventually plans to send 16 more generators to Sweden."
Excerpts from article written by Francis X. Donnelly of The Detroit News published here: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100911/METRO/9110372/1409/metro/Nuclear-waste-shipping-on-Great-Lakes-protested
The nuclear plants that are built in Canada and should be dismantled, recycled and processed here, as close as possible to their initial location. If that cannot be done, then it is another sign that we should not build any more...
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