Nuclear Waste on the Lakes

Canadian Nuclear regulators are trying to use the newly elected pretty boy of Canadian politics, Justin Trudeau, to set up a disastrous nuclear waste storage site not far from the Great Lakes.

The planned Deep Geological Depository would be twice as big as the White House and as deep as four Washington Monuments. It would be used to store 50 years worth of low level radioactive waste created by Ontario nuclear power plants. (Actually nuclear cancer sites. Put a pin in where there is a nuclear power plant and look at the cancer rates around the plant. I'll bet they are higher. Want to guess why?)

In its depth, the DGC would be within a mile of the bottom of Lake Huron, and by connection, the entire Great Lakes. The Great Lakes provides fresh drinking water to over 40 million people (provided it isn't being pushed through lead pipes and have industrial waste pumped and dumped into it). The Great Lakes is also 20% of the world's fresh water. One accident and ...

Can you say “Disaster waiting to happen?”

I can.

Proponents claim that the rock is solid and that it hasn't moved in thousands of years. There's a simple reason for that.

It hasn't been dug into.

Everyone that I know that does excavation work says that when you dig into an area you weaken it. That is why they build cinder block walls, put re-bar in, and pour in tons of concrete. To strengthen and stabilize the walls of the foundation and prevent it from caving in.

Now I haven't seen the plans, but I sincerely doubt that they are planning on extensive reinforcing of the walls. It sounds to me like they are planning on the rock being that strong on its own.

Never mind that right here in WNY is a very long and dangerous fault that hasn't gone off in a long time. (I'll have to dig up the name.) All I know is that the last time it decided to slip we wound up with the Clarence Escarpment. Go on Goodrich Road in Clarence and drive north from Main Street (Route 5) and pay attention to the right hand side of the road. You can see the evidence of the late 1800's earthquake. Turn to the right on Salt Road (I believe) and you can go into a small park that lets you look at a whole lot worse damage.

And who's to say that another fault in the area of the proposed vault won't start problems?

And contrary to the article in the Sunday Buffalo News, nuclear power is not clean. One only needs to look at the mining process to see the piles of radioactive waste left behind. Then there is the refining process that produces even more waste. And then the actual running of the plant that produces all the garbage that they want to store.

And it is far from inexpensive. A long time ago on Project Censored I heard a podcast (from their radio show) that went into how expensive and polluting nuclear power is. And then there is their coverage of the Fukushima disaster. CounterSpin had a similar story on as well. Nuclear power plants cost a minimum of 400% of the initial cost. They usually go much higher and are always behind schedule and way over budget.

To be kind, this is a bad idea on the part of the Ontario and Canadian government.

There is no way that the Canadian government can keep the DGC safe from any sort of natural disaster.

Then again, the best way to deal with nuclear waste is to never create it in the first place.

But that's too logical.

Environmentalists & socialists demand:

NO to the Deep Geological Depository. The fresh water of the Great Lakes is not worth risking.

NO to nuclear power – Use the money to advance solar, wind, and tidal energy platforms instead.

NO to subsidies for the nuclear energy industry.

When I say “green energy” I'm not talking about something that glows in the dark and gives you cancer.