KINCARDINE, Ontario (AP) — Ordinarily, a proposal to buryradioactive waste in a scenic area
that relies on tourism would inspire"not in my backyard" protests from local residents — and
relief inplaces that were spared.But conventional wisdom has been turnedon its head in the Canadian
province of Ontario, where a publicly ownedpower company wants to entomb waste from its nuclear plants
2,230 feetbelow the surface and less than a mile from Lake Huron.Some ofthe strongest support comes from
Kincardine and other communities nearthe would-be disposal site at the Bruce Power complex, the
world’slargest nuclear power station, which produces one-fourth of allelectricity generated in Canada’s
most heavily populated province.Nuclear is a way of life here, and many residents have jobs connected
tothe industry.Meanwhile, the loudest objections are coming fromelsewhere in Canada and the U.S. —
particularly Michigan, which sharesthe Lake Huron shoreline with Ontario.Critics are aghast at theidea.
They don’t buy assurances that the waste would rest far beneaththe lake’s greatest depths and be encased
in rock formations that havebeen stable for 450 million years."Neither the U.S. nor Canadacan
afford the risk of polluting the Great Lakes with toxic nuclearwaste," U.S. Reps. Dan Kildee,
Sander Levin, John Dingell and GaryPeters of Michigan said in a letter to a panel that is expected to
make arecommendation next spring to Canada’s federal government, which hasthe final say.Michigan’s two
U.S. senators, Democrats Carl Levinand Debbie Stabenow, have asked the State Department to
intervene.Business and environmental groups in Michigan and Ohio submittedletters. An online petition
sponsored by a Canadian opposition group hascollected nearly 42,000 signatures.The decision on the
$1billion Canadian project could influence the broader debate over buryingnuclear waste deep
underground, said Per Peterson, a nuclearengineering professor at the University of California at
Berkeley, whoserved on a national commission that studied the waste issue in theUnited States. The U.S.
government’s plan for building a repository atYucca Mountain in Nevada has been halted by stiff
opposition."Demonstratingthat this facility can be approved and operated safely is importantbecause
it can improve confidence that future high-level wastefacilities also can be operated safely,"
Peterson said.TheCanadian "deep geologic repository" would be the only deep-undergroundstorage
facility in North America, aside from a military installation inNew Mexico. Other U.S. radioactive waste
landfills are shallow —usually 100 feet deep or less.The most highly radioactive wastegenerated at
nuclear plants is spent fuel, which wouldn’t go into theCanadian chamber. Instead, the site would house
"low-level" waste suchas ashes from incinerated mop heads, paper towels and floor sweepings.It
also would hold "intermediate waste" — discarded parts from thereactor core.The project would
be operated by Ontario PowerGeneration (OPG), a publicly owned company that manages waste generatedby
its nuclear reactors and others owned by Bruce Power, a privateoperator. Officials insist it’s the
safest way to deal with radioactivematerial that has been stored aboveground since the late 1960s and
needsa permanent resting place."We’ve had many scientists andengineers studying this for many
years," OPG spokesman Neal Kelly said."They’ve concluded that it will not harm the environment
or the public."Mostof the waste would decay within 300 years, but the company acknowledgesthe
intermediate waste would stay radioactive for more than 100,000years. That’s too long for Eugene
Bourgeois, who has a wool yarnbusiness near Bruce Power."We have only recently
discoveredradioactivity," he said. "It’s arrogant to think we’re smart enough toknow what it
will do to life on this planet over such a long time."LarryKraemer, mayor of Kincardine, says most
of his constituents don’t sharethose fears. The risk of radioactive pollution is "so low as to
bealmost unimaginable," he said. "The people here draw their drinkingwater from the lake.
We’re certainly not going to take any chances withit."Kincardine is among several small communities
hugging theshoreline in southern Ontario’s Bruce County, which has miles of sandybeaches popular with
tourists — particularly from Toronto, about threehours southwest. The downtowns are lined with shops,
restaurants, parks,museums and woodsy footpaths.The area’s first nuclear plant wasbuilt in the 1960s in
countryside north of Kincardine. The sprawlingBruce Power site now has eight reactors and employs about
4,000 people.Kraemer says about half the jobs in his town of 12,000 are connected tothe
industry."We don’t have the knee-jerk reaction when someonesays ‘nuclear’ that other people
do," said Joanne Robbins, generalmanager of the chamber of commerce in nearby Saugeen Shores.
"We grew upwith it."Beverly Fernandez, leader of the group that started theonline petition,
lives in Saugeen Shores but admits she’s focusing onrally opposition outside the area because the
industry is so popular inBruce County — which she dryly labels "the nuclear
oasis."Companyspecialists say the waste would be placed in impermeable chambersdrilled into sturdy
limestone 2,230 feet below the surface, topped with ashale layer more than 600 feet thick. The lake’s
maximum depth in thevicinity of the nuclear site is about 590 feet.But CharlesRhodes, an engineer and
physicist, contended seeping groundwater wouldfill the chamber in as little as a year, become
contaminated andeventually reach the lake through tiny cracks in the rock."It’s only a question of
how long, and how toxic it will be when it gets there," he said in an interview.Kraemer,the
Kincardine mayor, said naysayers should be grateful his town iswilling to shoulder a burden few others
would accept."Opposition without responsibility is just a little too easy," he
said.___Online:Ontario Power Generation: http://opgdgr.com/Opposition group: http://www.stopthegreatlakesnucleardump.com/___Follow
John Flesher on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JohnFlesher .Copyright
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