[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 15, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       SENATE RESOLUTION 514--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE 
      THAT THE PRESIDENT AND THE SECRETARY OF STATE SHOULD ENSURE 
       THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA DOES NOT PERMANENTLY STORE 
                 NUCLEAR WASTE IN THE GREAT LAKES BASIN

  Ms. STABENOW (for herself, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Peters, Ms. Klobuchar, 
Mr. Durbin, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Brown, and Mrs. Gillibrand) submitted 
the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 514

       Whereas the water resources of the Great Lakes Basin are 
     precious public natural resources shared by the Great Lakes 
     States and the Provinces of Canada;
       Whereas, since 1909, the United States and Canada have 
     worked to maintain and improve the water quality of the Great 
     Lakes through water quality agreements;
       Whereas more than 40,000,000 individuals in Canada and the 
     United States depend on the fresh water from the Great Lakes 
     for drinking water;
       Whereas the Government of Canada is proposing to build a 
     permanent deep geological repository for high-level nuclear 
     waste in the Great Lakes Basin;
       Whereas the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Canada 
     is examining building a permanent deep geological repository 
     for nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin, less than 40 
     miles from Lake Huron in South Bruce, Ontario, Canada;
       Whereas nuclear waste is highly toxic and can take tens of 
     thousands of years to decompose to safe levels;
       Whereas a spill of nuclear waste into the Great Lakes, 
     including during transit to a permanent deep geological 
     repository for nuclear waste, could have lasting and severely 
     adverse environmental, health, and economic impacts on the 
     Great Lakes and the individuals who depend on the Great Lakes 
     for their livelihoods;
       Whereas more than 232 State, Tribal, county, and local 
     governments have passed resolutions in opposition to the 
     proposed nuclear waste repository of Ontario Power 
     Generation;
       Whereas Tribes and First Nations' citizens have a strong 
     spiritual and cultural connection to the Great Lakes;
       Whereas the Saugeen Ojibway Nation exercised its Aboriginal 
     and treaty rights by voting against the Ontario Power 
     Generation building a permanent nuclear waste repository in 
     Kincardine, Ontario;
       Whereas the protection of the Great Lakes is fundamental to 
     treaty rights; and
       Whereas, during the 1980s, when the Department of Energy 
     was studying potential sites for a permanent nuclear waste 
     repository in the United States in accordance with the 
     Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.), 
     the Government of Canada expressed concern with locating a 
     permanent nuclear waste repository within shared water basins 
     of the 2 countries: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the Government of Canada should not allow a permanent 
     nuclear waste repository to be built within the Great Lakes 
     Basin;
       (2) the President and the Secretary of State should take 
     appropriate action to work with the Government of Canada to 
     prevent a permanent nuclear waste repository from being built 
     within the Great Lakes Basin; and
       (3) the President and the Secretary of State should work 
     together with their counterparts in the Government of Canada 
     on a solution for the long-term storage of nuclear waste 
     that--
       (A) is safe and responsible; and
       (B) does not pose a threat to the Great Lakes.

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