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"SEAWAY CARGO: Canadian plant awaits OK for its shipping plan By JAEGUN LEE TIMES STAFF WRITER WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2010 ARTICLE OPTIONS A A A print this article e-mail this article A Canadian nuclear power station is planning to ship 16 decommissioned radioactive steam generators through the St. Lawrence Seaway this September. And although the company's application is pending the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's approval, the idea of having nuclear waste traveling on Lake Huron, through the Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway is raising concerns among the region's environmental groups. "Do we have the capability to handle a nuclear accident? I'm not sure if we're prepared for it," said Jennifer J. Caddick, executive director of Save the River, Clayton. "But the bigger issue here is transparency. There are a ton of questions that need to be answered.""

"Bruce Power is seeking a licence from the Nuclear Safety Commission to transport 1760 tonnes of radioactive steel through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway, passing Cornwall Ontario, on its way overseas. If this plan is approved the 16 used steam generators are going to be shipped to Sweden going through both Canadian and American waters. The transportation of radioactive materials through Canadian waters has some citizens and politicians concerned. Mike Bradley (the Mayor of Sarnia) and Elizabeth May (leader of the Green Party) are both critical of the plan. If the shipment is approved it would set a precedent for transporting radioactive materials through the Great Lakes, and it could create a rubber stamp for these kinds of shipments in the future without public notice or approval. Although a disaster is unlikely, according to environmentalists, a disaster could be truly devastating. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River represent 20% of the worlds fresh drinking water, drinking water for more than 40 million people. Supporters of Nuclear Energy claim that even if there was a disaster, the damage would be minimal."

Fresh from its recent move of a giant transformer to the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant across Harford County last month, the State Highway Administration plans to take on another oversize move next week. On Tuesday, the first of two million-pound steam generators will be taken off a barge at Port Deposit in Cecil County to begin an almost three-week journey to the Three Mile Island Nuclear Facility outside Harrisburg. The next day, a second 510-ton generator is expected to arrive. For both humongous cargoes, the first legs of their journey will take them over the roads of Cecil County to the Pennsylvania state line. The equipment will first be transported along Route 222 to the former Bainbridge Naval Training Facility. From that staging area, they will be moved starting Sept. 13 along Route 276, through the roundabout at Route 273, then up U.S. 1 to Pennsylvania.

Inspectors in Japan have detected "weld defects" inside two massive steam generators being built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for installation at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Gil Alexander, a spokesman for plant owner Southern California Edison, said in a statement Wednesday that similar defects have not been found in two similar generators already delivered to San Onofre and scheduled for installation inside its Unit 2 containment dome this fall. "The deficiency, which is being corrected, was caused by a manufacturing process that was not used on the Unit 2 steam generators," Alexander said.

The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant will undergo its biggest modification ever this fall when two new steam generators are brought in to replace the originals. The work, plus other maintenance work which will be done at the same time while the plant is shut down, will bring an extra 3,000 workers to the island for a couple of months, according to spokesman Ralph DeSantis. The workers will include pipe fitters, electricians, carpenters, ironworkers and boilermakers who will be contracted through their unions, DeSantis said. The steam generators are each seven stories tall and weigh more than one million pounds. They are being assembled in France and will come to Three Mile Island by barge, ship, and 150-wheel trailer. The project, which has been in the planning stages for two years, is projected to cost $280 million, DeSantis said.

A plan to carry two massive generators through Lancaster County en route to Three Mile Island is generating a lot of interest - and concern - among local residents. Anyone interested in asking questions or learning more about the plan will have three opportunities to do so. AREVA Inc., the Paris-based manufacturer of the 811-ton steam generators, will host three public meetings to discuss the matter. The following meetings are scheduled:

If you want to snap a photo of two of the largest objects ever to move across the Lancaster County landscape later this summer, don't worry, they will be creeping by at a tortoise-like 2 or 3 miles per hour. Two steam generators, each weighing about the same as two locomotives, will be pulled by the same kind of self-propelled transport that moves the space shuttle to the blastoff pad. As they navigate the length of the county in August or September en route to the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, there will be a whole lot of commotion in front of the oversized loads.

"Studsvik of Sweden has signed a contract with Finland's Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) for the dismantling and metal recycling of old steam generators from the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. Studsvik-steam generator A steam generator for treatment at Studsvik (Image: Studsvik) Studsvik's facility near Nyköping, Sweden, melts metal scrap, such as stainless steel, carbon steel, copper, aluminium or lead. Melting reduces the volume and weight of the waste, resulting in reduced costs for interim on-site storage and final disposal. The end-product is metal ingots, which can either be immediately free-released as conventional scrap metal or released after a period of decay storage. Residual products (slag, sorted material, cutting and blasting residues and dust from the ventilation filters) and ingots that cannot be free-released are returned to the customer."

"Groups opposed to a Bruce Power plan to ship 16 steam generators, considered intermediate-level waste, through Owen Sound and the Great Lakes en route to Sweden for recycling are circulating a resolution to municipalities and other organizations calling for an end to the proposal. A Bruce Power spokesman said the company sees moving the 100-tonne generators more as a traffic issue than one of nuclear safety. "Everyone has the right to express their opinions, but we don't see any risk in this," said Peevers. The resolution being circulated by groups such as Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Beyond Nuclear and the Nuclear Information and Resource Centre (NIRC) has collected signatures from a few hundred anti-nuclear, First Nations, environmental, and physicians groups from across Canada, the United States and countries around the world. In Bruce County, Citizens for Renewable Energy out of Lion's Head is opposed to the shipment of steam generators off the site. Hundreds of individuals have also signed, including Inverhuron's Eugene Bourgeois, Dr. Paul J. Eisenbarth of Hanover and Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley. "