Tribe opposes nuclear shipment

Oct 05 - Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.

The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne is one of nearly 80 groups and organizations involved in trying to halt a shipment of nuclear waste through the St. Lawrence Seaway.

A two-day public hearing about the shipment closed at the end of last month, ushering in a month of waiting as the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission decides whether it should allow 16 decommissioned 100-ton radioactive steam generators to pass through the Great Lakes and the Seaway.

Their final destination is a plant in Sweden where the materials will be recycled, but the Mohawk Council and dozens of other political and environmental groups are doing all they can to stop them from getting there, arguing the materials should be left at the Bruce Power plant, as originally planned.

"It just opens the door; what's to prevent future shipments of larger amounts of the nuclear waste?" the council's acting environmental science director, Elizabeth F. Nanticoke, asked. "Nobody ever asked what should happen in our territory; they just go ahead and propose things without asking us. Although they say it's low levels, you can never say that it's ever completely safe."

The generators would not be the first radioactive shipment to pass from North America to Europe via the St. Lawrence Seaway. However, they are too large to fit into the regular containers designed for such shipments, making a special permit necessary, according to the Bruce Power website.

After the recycling process in Sweden, 90 percent of the steel from the generators would be able to be reused. The remaining 10 percent would be shipped back to Bruce Power for long-term storage, according to the company.

The generators, according to a news release from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, do not pose a risk to the public or the environment and became radioactive only through use in the plant; originally, they were simply steel.

But none of those reassurances is enough to quell the fears of the Mohawks or other organizations.

"Obviously, it's a Canadian regulatory process, but we've been paying pretty close attention," said Jennifer J. Caddick, executive director of Save the River, Clayton. "This also raises some larger questions about what else is being transported through the Seaway. Whenever ships move hazardous materials, they have to fly a special flag. We understand there are some security concerns, but our local responders would be the first on scene, so it's important that they have the right training."

For the Mohawks, the issue is more about respect - of their history and culture, as well as their laws.

"There has been a history of intervening in the process when there have been shipments that threaten the environment," council spokesman Brendan F. White said.

In 1999, the council, which governs the Canadian side of the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation, halted a similar transport of mixed oxide fuel, a fuel capable of sustaining nuclear fission. At that time, it also passed a law saying no nuclear materials would ever pass through Mohawk lands, Ms. Nanticoke said.

If the Canadian commission decides to allow the transport of the generators despite the protests, that law may become an issue, though Ms. Nanticoke could not say for sure.

"It's a community law, so that becomes a political issue," she said. "I gather the MCA would have to get legally involved."

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