Canadian company, Ontario Power Generation, is working to bury waste from nuclear power plants next to freshwater Lake Huron. Naturally, concerned citizens, activists and governments on both sides of the border, who share Lake Huron as a natural drinking water source, are hesitant to allow the company to proceed with their plans. 

What are the plans for burying the nuclear waste? 
Ontario Power Generation wishes to bury their nuclear waste on the grounds of the Bruce Power Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario. The Bruce Power Generating Station is the world’s largest nuclear power complex with eight reactors. Ontario Power Generation plans to bury their waste on site 2230 feet below ground level. At this level, the nuclear waste will be deeper underground than the base of Lake Huron. However, it will only be less than a mile away from the lake’s fresh water. 

Before burying the hazardous material, it will be encased in a limestone formation. The company states that the formation has been stable and able to contain toxic materials for over 450 million years. In the proposal, Ontario Power Generation reveals they will be burying both low level and intermediate level waste which can retain toxicity for thousands of years. 

What other spots were considered? 
Ontario Power Generation considered two other disposal sites for their nuclear waste. The first option was a crystalline rock formation in north central Ontario. The second location was a limestone rock in Ontario’s south. Specific details of the exact locations were not revealed. However, both are significantly farther from Lake Huron than the proposed Bruce Power Generating Station dumpsite. 

In the end, Ontario Power Generation decided that neither of the other two sites were worthwhile options. Both would involve a higher economic cost, as the waste is already stored in temporary canisters at the Bruce Power Generating Station, so transportation elsewhere would be costly. There is also an elevated environmental risk when transporting nuclear waste. That’s not to mention the increase in greenhouse gas emissions necessary to construct appropriate disposal sites at the proposed locations. 

What does the opposition say? 
Naturally, many people are concerned with Ontario Power Generation’s plans and strongly oppose the move to bury nuclear waste by Lake Huron. United States Representative Dan Kildee of Michigan said, “Surely in the vast land mass that comprises Canada, there must be a better place to permanently store nuclear waste than on the shores of Lake Huron.” Canada is the second largest country in the world by land mass. Much of that mass is sparsely populated and may be the perfect spot for nuclear waste. However, as Ontario Power Generation shared in their consideration of other sites, there are significant costs and risks to moving the hazardous materials. But are they worth it to safeguard our drinking water? 

Beverly Fernandez of Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump certainly thinks so. “Water is life. No matter what process is followed, burying radioactive waste beside the Great Lakes, the irreplaceable drinking water for 40 million people, will always be a bad idea.” She’s not alone. More than 150,000 people signed a petition by her group calling for the end of Ontario Power Generation’s plans to dump waste near Lake Huron. The Canadian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has delayed the company’s nuclear waste disposal plan twice in the past. Ontario Power Generation has submitted further studies in the hopes of having a positive response from the ministry later in 2017.