Citizens Rally to Protect the Great Lakes-Urge Attorney General to Stop Plutonium Shipments
A snowballing coalition of concerned citizens, representing environmental, peace, labor, environmental justice, and public interest groups are petitioning Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm to file an injunction to stop the proposed shipment of mixed-oxide plutonium (MOX) fuel across the state to Ontario, Canada by way of Sault St. Marie. Fifty plus organizations and individuals from around Michigan, across the U.S. and Canada signed on to the letter sent to the Attorney General yesterday.
Citing the potential for a 50-mile-long airborne plume of cancer-causing plutonium in the event of an accident and fire, residents are calling on Ms. Granholm to block the Department of Energy's (DOE) impending shipment by challenging the lack of consideration for public safety and the environment.
MOX is a nuclear power reactor fuel made from plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads. The DOE plans to conduct a joint experiment with Canadian and Russian nuclear agencies at Chalk River Nuclear Lab in Ontario northwest of Ottawa. Chalk River was the scene of the world's first major nuclear power disaster-a core meltdown in 1952. The Russian MOX shipment has been postponed until April 2000. Despite this setback, DOE is still pressing to ship its MOX from Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico (birthplace of the atomic bomb) to Canada.
Spurred by the public, Michigan's U.S. Representatives Stupak, Barcia, Stabenow, and Camp demanded DOE hold public hearings about the shipment. Despite the overwhelming public opposition expressed at these meetings just over a week ago, DOE intends to go forward with the MOX shipment through Michigan.
Since last Friday, citizens and groups have peppered the Attorney General with their concerns and legal grounds for opposing the shipment. DOE plans to truck the MOX through Michigan via I-94, I-69, and I-75.
"The DOE is determined to move this dangerous material through Michigan, even though its own assessment admits that a serious accident and fire could spew plutonium across 2 countries. Our emergency responders are not prepared for a radiological disaster of that magnitude," said Alice Hirt of Holland.
"The citizens of Michigan successfully stopped a radioactive waste dump in Riga Township, a nuclear power plant in Midland, and we will stop this shipment of MOX!" declared Kay Cumbow of Brown City, MI, member of a citizen's group that helped stop these same shipments across the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron last fall.
If the tests at Chalk River succeed, the US and Russia have laid out plans to transport much larger amounts of this plutonium-mix fuel to the Bruce Nuclear Plants on Lake Huron. One proposed route for Russia's shipments is via the St. Lawrence Seaway on through the Great Lakes Basin. "An accident enroute to Bruce or at the Bruce Plants could be disastrous to the Great Lakes Region. These shipments also open the door to plutonium commerce in the Great Lakes," observed Michael Keegan of Monroe, MI. Last week at Cornwall, the Mohawk Indian Nation and Canadians environmentalists protested against the proposed Russian test shipment.
"It is not necessary to use this excess plutonium in nuclear reactors to safeguard against its use in bombs. The whole MOX program is just a blatant attempt to prop up the dying commercial nuclear power industries in the U.S, Canada, and Russia at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer, " said Anabel Dwyer of East Lansing. "Vitrification-mixing the plutonium with highly radioactive nuclear waste in glass logs-is actually more effective at safeguarding plutonium against theft, and is quicker, safer and less expensive than MOX," Dwyer said.
Petition and Letter to Attorney General available on line at www.great-lakes.net/lists/enviro-mich/
or by contacting Alice Hirt by phone at 616-335-3405 or aliceh777@aol.com
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