© 2024 MICHIGAN PUBLIC
91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit 104.1 Grand Rapids 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Plans for a nuclear waste storage facility near Lake Huron face a public hearing

The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station right on Lake Huron in Ontario.
user Cszmurlo
/
Wikimedia Commons
The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station right on Lake Huron in Ontario. The proposed nuclear waste storage facility would be on the Bruce Nuclear Site within the municipality of Kincardine, Ontario.

Canadian officials will open a public hearing Tuesday looking at plans for a nuclear waste storage facility very close to Lake Huron.  

Ontario Power Generation wants to build the facility in Kincardine, Ontario, less than a mile from the lakeshore. The plan concerns environmentalists, who fear the underground facility could contaminate Lake Huron.

One Michigan congressman plans to introduce a resolution this week opposing the current site chosen for the facility.

Utility officials insist their plans to build a massive underground storage facility are safe. The facility would descend nearly 700 meters below the surface and eventually store 200,000 cubic meters of low and intermediate nuclear waste from Canadian nuclear stations.

“The geology, the geosphere, the repository design, the depth will protect the environment,” insists Neal Kelly, a spokesman for Ontario Power Generation.

He says 70% of the waste to be stored in the facility would only be low-level nuclear contamination. 

This week’s public hearing will focus on technical issues tied to the planned facility.     

It will be many years before the utility can build the billion dollar nuclear waste storage facility, even if Canadian regulators grant the utility a license to build it. 

The Deep Geologic Repository Joint Review Panel will hold its hearing on Tuesday in Kincardine.

You can find more about the hearing by following this link from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

Steve Carmody has been a reporter for Michigan Public since 2005. Steve previously worked at public radio and television stations in Florida, Oklahoma and Kentucky, and also has extensive experience in commercial broadcasting.
Related Content