Bill Text: MI HCR0012 | 2019-2020 | 100th Legislature | Engrossed
Bill Title: A concurrent resolution to oppose Canada's consideration of placing a permanent high-level radioactive waste storage site on the shores of Lake Huron, to urge the United States Congress to take every legal action possible to prevent the construction of any underground high-level nuclear waste repository in the Great Lakes basin, and to urge the Canadian government to prohibit a high-level nuclear waste repository anywhere in the Great Lakes basin.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 8-5)
Status: (Passed) 2020-02-05 - Referred To Committee On Energy And Technology [HCR0012 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2019-HCR0012-Engrossed.html
house concurrent resolution no. 12
Reps. Howell, Wakeman, Eisen, Green, Rendon, Calley, Pohutsky, Cambensy, Sowerby, Hernandez, Garza, Leutheuser and Sabo offered the following concurrent resolution:
Whereas, The Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization has chosen the township of Huron-Kinloss and the municipality of South Bruce in southern Ontario as one of two finalists for a possible long-term geological repository to bury and abandon Canada's radioactive spent nuclear fuel, the most dangerous nuclear waste. This proposed area along the shores of Lake Huron is approximately 120 miles upstream from the main drinking water intakes for southeast Michigan. Indeed, the Great Lakes provide drinking water to 40 million people on both the United States and Canadian borders; and
Whereas, The governments of Canada and the United States, under the 2012 Protocol Amending the Agreement Between Canada and the United States of America on Great Lakes Water Quality, acknowledge the importance of anticipating, preventing, and responding to threats to the waters of the Great Lakes and share a responsibility and an obligation to protect the Great Lakes from contamination from various sources of pollution, including the leakage of nuclear waste from a high-level underground nuclear waste repository; and
Whereas, When the nearby Bruce Nuclear Generation Station was considered previously as a site for Canada's low- and intermediate-level radioactive nuclear waste, entities representing over 23 million citizens passed numerous resolutions in the states of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio, and in the province of Ontario opposing any nuclear waste repository at the site; and
Whereas, Placing a deep geological repository near the Great Lakes is a high-risk venture with the potential of causing irreparable harm to millions of lives. Underground waste repositories have leaked in the past, costing billions of dollars to repair. Germany, for instance, is spending billions of dollars to dig up low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste that was stored in a salt mine due to leakage and other environmental concerns. In 2014, chemical reactions in a steel barrel full of radioactive waste caused an explosion and fire at a low- and intermediate-level underground waste site in Carlsbad, New Mexico causing a cloud of radioactivity to be released at the surface. Not only did this put the health and safety of the public at risk, it cost taxpayers $2 billion to clean up and repair. As demonstrated, low- and intermediate-level facilities have failed, and this high-level nuclear proposal provides no guarantee, whatsoever, to keep radioactive waste from our environment; and
Whereas, Placing a permanent high-level nuclear waste burial facility within the Great Lakes basin is ill-advised. The potential damage to the Great Lakes from any leak or breach of radioactivity far outweighs any benefits that could be derived from burying high-level radioactive waste at this site. The ecology of the Great Lakes, which is valuable beyond measure to the health and economic well-being of the entire region, should not be placed at risk by storing high-level radioactive waste within the Great Lakes watershed. Canada currently has an inventory of almost 2.9 million used nuclear fuel bundles stored above ground in wet pools and dry containers at the nuclear plant sites where the waste is generated, constituting 128 million pounds of highly radioactive material—a number that is growing; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That, in the strongest manner possible, we oppose the Nuclear Waste Management Organization's consideration of placing a high-level nuclear waste repository on the shores of Lake Huron; and be it further
Resolved, That we urge the United States Congress to take every legal action possible to oppose the construction of any underground high-level nuclear waste repository in the Great Lakes basin; and be it further
Resolved, That we urge the Canadian government to prohibit the siting and construction of a high-level nuclear waste repository anywhere in the Great Lakes basin; and be it further
Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the Prime Minister of Canada, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Premier of Ontario, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, the members of the Michigan congressional delegation, and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
