A
coalition of environmental groups today urged the Michigan
Natural Resources Trust Fund Board to reject a plan to purchase
the former Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant site near Charlevoix.
The
continued storage of high-level atomic waste at the site,
its legacy of radioactive contamination, and the availability
of numerous high-quality natural lands competing for limited
Trust Fund dollars should be factors when the Board votes
on the proposal Wednesday, Dec. 6.
"There
are more than 160 applicants for trust fund dollars, many
for spectacular lands including sand dunes, wetlands, riverfront
and lakefront property and forests — none of which have
nuclear waste issues," said Hugh McDiarmid Jr., spokesman
for the Michigan Environmental Council. "We ask the board
members not to shortchange these applicants to invest in a
site that will have dangerous radioactive waste for the foreseeable
future and that has a dubious environmental legacy of contamination."
The
351-acre tract would cost the state $3 million this year and
an additional $16.3 million in future years. It surrounds
a 100-acre zone forbidden to the public because of its proximity
to 64 tons of highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods patrolled
by armed guards.
All
told, the request is among $63 million worth of projects under
consideration for the $35 million available.
Although
Big Rock has been declared clean by contractors hired by the
property's owner, Consumers Energy Co., questions remain as
to the residual contamination and radiation and the thoroughness
of the environmental assessment.
Consumers
Energy and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports reveal
a four-decade "Radiological Event History" that
documents 63 radioactive spills, leaks, overflows, as well
as sloppy handling of radioactive materials at the Big Rock
site. A single incident in 1984 released 20,000 gallons of
radioactive water into the soil and aquifers. Consumers Energy
received permission from the NRC for "on-site disposal"
of that spill, leaving the contaminants in the ground water
to flow out into Lake Michigan. NRC documents reveal that
up until the year 2000, the groundwater was in violation of
the Safe Drinking Water Act. Tritium — radioactive hydrogen
— is likely still flowing into Lake Michigan and contaminating
Big Rock's aquifers.
"Consumers
Energy has treated the Big Rock site as a radioactive septic
field, and Lake Michigan as an atomic cesspool, and NRC has
let them get away with it," said Kevin Kamps of Nuclear
Information and Resource Service. "That's why we call
Big Rock the Plutonium State Park."
"Water
is in every cell of the human body, therefore water containing
radioactive hydrogen — tritium — can enter, contaminate,
and bombard any cell in the body, doing harm to this and future
generations," said Kay Drey, an NIRS board member who
has researched tritium's health hazards for decades.
"The
tiny reactor at Big Rock compiled one of the dirtiest radiation
release records in the entire country," said Michael
Keegan of the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes. "That
radioactivity contaminated the soil, groundwater, and Lake
Michigan, leaving a public health hazard and legal liability
nightmare for generations to come."
The
U.S. Department of Energy has stated in recent months that
the proposed national dumpsite for high-level radioactive
waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada cannot open until 2017 at
the very earliest. Transporting the eight silos of waste from
Big Rock to Nevada could take additional years after that.
"The
high-level radioactive wastes at Big Rock are not going anywhere
anytime soon," said Kamps of NIRS. "In the meantime,
they will remain a radioactive bull's eye on the shoreline
of Lake Michigan, vulnerable to terrorist attack or accident."
Each
container of high-level waste at Big Rock contains the long-lasting
radiation equivalent of 240 Hiroshima bombs, according to
Dr. Marvin Resnikoff of Radioactive Waste Management Associates
in New York City. Resnikoff authored a report in 1996 on Big
Rock's decommissioning, advocating that Consumers mothball
the plant for decades to allow radiation levels to die down
before workers were sent in to dismantle the facility. Instead,
Consumers opted for immediate dismantlement.
Groups
opposing the state acquisition of the Big Rock property include:
Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens
Resistance at Fermi Two, Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great
Lakes, Don't Waste Michigan, Environment Michigan, Friends
of the Detroit River, Great Lakes United, HEAT - Hamtramck
Environmental Action Team, Home for Peace and Justice, Huron
Environmental Activist League (HEAL), IHM Justice, Peace and
Sustainability Office, Les Cheneaux Watershed Council, Lone
Tree Council, Michigan Coalition on the Environment and Jewish
Life, Michigan Environmental Council, National Environmental
Trust, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Tittabawassee
River Watch, and Wayne State University College Democrats.
