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Decision on nuke waste delayed

Decision on nuke waste delayed

A decision on whether Ontario Power Generation will be allowed to build a dump for low and intermediate-level nuclear waste a mile from the Lake Huron shoreline has been delayed at least two months.

The announcement was issued Thursday night by a member of recently-elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.

Catherine McKenna, the country’s new Minister of Environment and Climate Change, said she is giving the utility until April 18 to provide more information. Ms. McKenna announced shortly after taking office that she originally planned to make a decision about the project on March 1.

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The decision relates to an ongoing environmental assessment for the proposed Deep Geologic Repository, or DGR, proposed for the eight-reactor Bruce nuclear complex in Kincardine, Ont., across the lake from the tip of Michigan’s Thumb region.

The project calls for burrowing a mine shaft a half-mile deep, then burying non-fuel waste from Ontario’s 20 reactors there. 

Nuclear advocates and opponents see the decision as a turning point for North America’s nuclear industry and Great Lakes water management.

It is one of the most ambitious efforts to manage nuclear waste and has drawn opposition from 184 communities and groups, including Toledo, Oregon, and Port Clinton. Numerous Great Lakes congressmen, including U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) urged Mr. Trudeau to reject the project.

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The proposed DGR would be the only one in civilian hands in North America and one of only a few in the world handling nuclear waste products such as protective clothing, concrete, and plant parts.

Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.

First Published February 19, 2016, 8:25 p.m.

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