Our conversation with Debora Van Brenk, a reporter for the London Free Press
The Canadian company that’s proposing to bury its nuclear waste in an underground site near Lake Huron doubled down this week on that controversial site.
Ontario Power Generation was ordered to do a study of alternative sites – options other than the proposed 2,200-foot underground repository at the Bruce power plant near Kincardine, right by Lake Huron.
That report came out last week.
Reporter Debora Van Brenk of the London Free Press has been covering the controversy over the proposed site, including the recently released report. She joined Stateside today to break down the controversy.
“Bottom line, [the report] said, was that either of those two sites would be more costly both to design, to build, to transport people and things to,” she said. “And it wouldn’t result in any additional safety than the Bruce site would be.”
A joint review panel held hearings and reviewed some 30,000 pages before eventually deciding the Bruce site is the best option.
She said the panel concluded there is “virtually no chance of safety issues" at that site.
But critics of the proposed nuclear waste storage location exist on both sides of the border, and virtually all members of the United States Congress from Great Lakes states are against it.
“I’ve covered different issues over a 25-year career,” Van Brenk said. “I have never come across one that is as divisive as this one. You are either all in or all against.”
For Van Brenk’s full breakdown of the news, listen above.
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