Ship happens?: Plan to transport radioactive materials on Great Lakes creates ripples of protest

[marmar]

from the Detroit Metro Times:




By News Hits staff
Published: December 1, 2010


If you believe the folks at the Bruce nuclear power plant in Ontario, there's little to fear from the proposed shipment of 16 steam generators contaminated with radioactive waste.

Under a plan proposed by the company, the generators — each the size of a school bus and weighing in at 100 tons — would be shipped through three Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway and across the Atlantic to Sweden, where the metal would be recycled and the remaining radioactive material returned to Canada. Both legs of the trip would include Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River.

Duncan Hawthorne, the CEO of Bruce Power, made the whole issue sound almost trivial during a recent hearing on the matter in Ottawa. "There would be a greater radiological impact of someone with a pacemaker falling over the side of a boat and drowning," he testified, according to a report from CBC News. "He would introduce more radioactive material into the lake than one of our steam generators."

As for opponents of the plan, they are the usual anti-nuclear suspects "who oppose everything we try to do," says John Peevers, spokesman for Bruce Power.

Except that it's not just the no-nuke crowd waving red flags here. For starters, there are seven U.S. senators from Great Lakes states — including Michigan Democrats Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow — who have signed a letter expressing their concerns about the plan. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://metrotimes.com/news/ship-happens-1.1070979

[BrklynLiberal]

1. "Ripples" of protest. There should be TIDAL WAVES of protest!

[Uben]

2. Oh pooh, what's the worst that could happen?

I mean really, what could it hurt. Okay, the worst possible thing that could happen is the largest source of fresh water in America could be contaminated. Big deal, we've got bottled water. Maybe a few million people would die, reducing the number of unemployed and opening up a lot of jobs.

We gotta look at the big picture!







/sarcasm

[pscot]

4. Radioactive zebra mussels?

[madokie]

3. Just in case

you might have missed it, this subject has been beat to death here already. :hi:

On the subject I say the bending of the rules is the bigger issue for me. First its this then down the road something a little more serious then more and more until the rule prohibiting such isn't any longer a rule. I would vote no on that reasoning alone. I'd already vote no on this anyway, just so's ya know