Attempts similar to Bure’s French project that have been made so far are far from convincing, says Colline, a French ecological activist: “WIPP explosions (a warehouse in New Mexico, USA, in 2014), sinkholes in Asse (Germany, storage project in former salt mines, closed in 1995)”he lists, and one already fears the “pollution of rivers and water tables in Russia”, which has just opened another similar tunnel in Novouralsk, on the Asian side of the Urals.
The activist refers to two events that were very significant at the time:
1) When a drum containing radioactive waste exploded at the WIPP underground nuclear landfill in New Mexico on February 14, 2014, the Department of Energy did not believe it would jeopardize its credibility in addressing the complicated radioactive waste problem. But the explosion marked one of the costliest nuclear accidents in US history, according to a Times analysis. It forced delays in moving the equivalent of 24,000 barrels of nuclear waste from the Hanford site to the WIPP. Partially resuming normal operations took years.
2) The closed salt mine in Asse Germany, in 1965 was purchased by the federal government, and used for more than a decade as a nuclear waste repository. There, 126,000 drums with low or medium radioactive intensity waste were stored in chambers previously dug to extract the salt. At the end of the 70s, storage there ceased because it was flooded and no longer met the legal conditions for that purpose. There were thousands of drums left with radioactive material whose state is unknown, still constituting an enormous problem with a difficult and uncertain solution.
Colline, the French activist, admitted the almost philosophical dilemma that, although we fight so that there is no nuclear cemetery in Bure “Not here, not anywhere!” The need to give a definitive non-polluting destination, if possible, to the radioactive waste already existing and in production, is unavoidable.
“The solution of burying the waste is bad, but the State and the nuclear industry do not seem to be looking for another one, and that is scary if you think about the future,” Colline concluded. “It would be necessary for that small number of people who decide alone for the rest of the planet… to do a little more philosophy!”
Near the location of the Bure cemetery, a “House of Resistance” was built, where antinuclear protesters reside. Currently there are other homes built for the same purpose.
To oppose the destruction of a forest under which the cemetery would be installed, the militants have hindered the beginning of the works. Barricades, trenches, sabotage of a trailer, fire of a vehicle, sabotage of the company that is building the waste elevator, etc.
Numerous militants have come in reinforcements, from Nancy and elsewhere, after sending a mobilization statement the night before.
On Friday, June 10, 2016, 30 people returned to play cat and mouse with the machines and the guards. On Saturday the 11th, a new walk has ended with the construction fences on the ground. The vigor of the opponents confirms that, for some years, the struggle has been strengthened on multiple fronts. The popular resistance is so intense, powerful and violent, that it is forcing the government to militarize the area.
But the French resistance is not the only one. In Canada there is opposition against a highly radioactive nuclear cemetery in Lake Huron, a lake bordered to the north and east by the province of Ontario, Canada, and to the west by the North American state of Michigan. The international border is developed along the spine of the lake.
The Canadian nuclear lobby has been pushing for years to dump radioactive waste in the Great Lakes area. On the northern border, in Ontario, is the largest nuclear power plant in the world with 9 reactors, as well as several native villages that would be the main affected.
For years, several environmental groups have opposed this proposal, and they already have legislative support. A bicameral resolution proposed by Michigan Democrats and Republicans opposing the dumping of radioactive waste in the Great Lakes area has been introduced in the US Congress. For years there was opposition to the interests of the Canadian nuclear industry.
On January 31, 2020, the nearby Saugeen Ojibwe Nation (“Bruce’s hosts”) voted NO in a referendum on Canadian energy company Generation’s $150 million bid. The company hoped that they would agree to forever host the waste from the province’s 20 reactors.
Since its founding in 2007, Beyond Nuclear has also opposed it. (Source Beyond Nuclear)
2023-11-12 21:43:10
#Lets #talk #nuclear #cemeteries #III
