Bruce Power nuclear shipment hearings begin

CBC News Mar 8, 2011

Two days of hearings into whether Bruce Power can ship radioactive waste through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway begin in Ottawa on Tuesday before a Commons committee.

The shipments, which would carry 16 school bus-sized, radiation-contaminated steam generators from Tiverton, Ont., across the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden for reprocessing, were approved by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) on Feb. 4, but still face stiff opposition.

Witnesses to appear Tuesday before the committee on natural resources, beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET, will include representatives of the CNSC and Bruce Power.

On Thursday, the committee will hear from representatives of the Mohawk tribes of Kahnawake, Akwesasne and Tyendinaga, as well as the Union of Ontario Indians and other groups opposed to the shipments.

(CBC)Bruce Power wants Studsvik, a Swedish company that specializes in decommissioning nuclear power plants, to reprocess the contaminated steam generators. Studsvik would separate the radioactive metal from the metal, and sell the clean metal on the scrap metal market.

The radioactive material — described by Bruce Power chief executive Duncan Hawthorne as being “the size of a ChapStick” —would come back to Canada for storage in an oil barrel-sized container.

Separately, the Canadian Environmental Law Association and Sierra Club Canada said Tuesday they have begun proceedings in the Federal Court of Canada seeking a judicial review of the CNSC’s ruling on the shipment.

They say the commission exceeded its jurisdiction in allowing the radioactive material shipments to Sweden and then back to Kincardine, Ont., for final storage.