Addressing Canadian Nuclear Waste Storage in Great Lakes Basin

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), co-chair of the U.S. Senate Great Lakes Task Force, announced that the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works passed her provision requiring the Biden Administration to work with Canada on an alternative location to permanently store nuclear waste. For years, Stabenow has opposed Canada’s plan to permanently store high-level nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin.  

Stabenow’s provision, which passed as part of the ADVANCE Act of 2023, requires the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to provide an update to Congress on engagement between the Commission and the Government of Canada regarding nuclear waste storage in the Great Lakes Basin.  

“Placing a nuclear waste facility next to one of the world’s largest supplies of fresh water makes absolutely no sense and is dangerous. Our Great Lakes are central to our Michigan way of life, and any nuclear waste spill would be devastating. This provision requires the Biden Administration to work with our Canadian neighbors to stop any plans to store nuclear waste so close to the Great Lakes,” said Senator Stabenow. 

Earlier this year, Stabenow reintroduced her bipartisan resolution with Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-08), and Congressman John James (MI-10) opposing Canada’s plan and calling on President Biden and his administration to work with the Canadian government to ensure nuclear waste is not permanently stored in the Great Lakes Basin.   

Over 40 million people in the United States and Canada get their drinking water from the Great Lakes. Meanwhile, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, a nonprofit created by the Canadian government, is proposing to build a permanent nuclear waste repository at South Bruce to store high-level nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin. The highly toxic waste could take tens of thousands of years to decompose to safe levels. 

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