U.S. says radioactive waste shipments safe, nixes full environmental assessment

OTTAWA — Dozens of secret shipments of intensely radioactive liquid waste from Chalk River should pose no significant danger to the one million Americans along the 1,700-kilometre truck route to a South Carolina reprocessing plant, say U.S. officials.

The greatest risk, according to an analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy, will be the inherent potential for an ordinary fatal traffic accident involving the weekly armed convoys of flatbed transport trucks hauling the weapons-grade uranium solution in fortified steel casks. But even that is considered unlikely, it says.

After Decades of Uranium Mining, Navajo Nation Struggles With Devastating Legacy of Contamination

New Mexico’s long history of uranium mining on Native American lands provides fuel for the front end of the nuclear industry and stores much of the mine tailings and radioactive waste from nuclear weapons and power plants. We look at the devastating impact uranium mining continues to have on Native lands with Leona Morgan of Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, a group dedicated to protecting the water, air, land and health of communities in areas impacted by uranium mines. We’re also joined by Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico and former Los Alamos National Laboratory investigator Chuck Montaño.

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Source: Democracy Now!
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Saugeen Shores Nuclear Waste Site: Permanent Dump Idea Sparks Unease In Southern Ontario Community

TORONTO - A community on the shores of Lake Huron has cracked open the door to southern Ontario's becoming the permanent storage site for Canada's spent, but still dangerously radioactive, nuclear fuel.

Until now, only nine communities in remote areas of northern Saskatchewan and northern Ontario were in the running to host the $24-billion project for a mammoth underground facility.

Now, to the consternation of some, one of southern Ontario's premier tourist destinations is on the radar, although how it got there is already the subject of dispute.

The municipality of Saugeen Shores, which includes the picturesque lakeside towns of Port Elgin and Southampton about three hours west of Toronto, is showing interest in becoming home to the waste site.

Neighbouring Brockton is also looking to get on board as part of an initiative to involve the entire county, which is already home to the Bruce nuclear power plant in nearby Kincardine.