Sarnia's mayor believes a Michigan senator's attempt to invoke a bilateral treaty to stop construction of a nuclear waste repository near Lake Huron, has a lot of merit. Mike Bradley says he welcomes Debbie Stabenow's call for a study by the International Joint Commission of risks the project might pose to the Great Lakes. The commission was established under a 1909 treaty between the U.S. and Canada to resolve disputes over shared waterways.
A vocal opponent of the repository plan, Bradley says it's yet another indication of how widespread the opposition is on both sides of the border. [audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Mike-3.mp3"][/audio] Ontario Power Generation wants to bury hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste 680 metres underground at a site near Kincardine about one kilometre from the lake.
Approval of the project rests with Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who has said she'll make a decision by December 2nd. The Michigan Democrat's bill would order the U.S. State Department to ask Canada to delay a decision until the IJC study is finished.
(With files from the Associated Press/The Canadian Press)