Saturday, June 3, 2017

MORE ON LAKE HURON & NUCLEAR WASTE



Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys the following article from Thomas Walkom titled "Lake Huron still preferred nuclear waste site for OPG". Mr. Walkom raises a couple of very interesting points. Firstly indeed what about the (remote?) possibility of an earthquake? While Ontario is not a hotspot of seismic activity neither is it totally unknown. If we had even a minor earthquake could a fault or opening in the bedrock allow radioactivity to escape? I don't know the answer to that but has the possibility, no matter how remote, been researched and discussed?

Secondly Mr. Walkom advises us of the process and procedures involved to date. He refers to them as being "a rather clever move" by Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Personally I would use a much stronger and less flattering description . It seems that OPG in mid stream appears to have upped the ante from low level radioactive waste to intermediate radioactive waste that includes dismantled reactor parts which would remain radioactive for 10,000 years. Again not impressed OPG.

Allegedly the highly radioactive fuel rods would not be stored in this proposed subsurface vault beside Lake Huron. Again allegedly a separate federal agency is looking for somewhere to bury these items. Wouldn't it just be dandy five or six years after this proposed low and intermediate crypt/vault is commissioned if this federal agency decided that golly gosh here we already have a secure geologic location, proven secure for the last whole five years, so why not "optimize" taxpayers expenditures and include the fuel rods.

This folks is precisely how unaccountable and non-transparent government ministries and bureaucracies work. Our so called "democracy" works during election campaigns and for about five minutes after the winners are declared. Then the party with a majority do exactly what they feel like and promises and commitments are nothing but wind to them.

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