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Nuclear Waste and Lake Huron

2/20/2016

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I hope you had a great vacation!  It’s time to go back to school and enter one of the most productive teaching times of the school year! 

It’s about 6 straight weeks – take a deep breath, it’s going to be a long stretch!  During that time period, you might want to consider taking one personal day to give yourself, and your students, a break.
 
Right now, most school budgets are depleted for the 2015-2016 class year.  My book,
Chemistry on a Budget, contains inexpensive chemistry labs that could be useful.  You can buy this lab book for $23 at amazon.com or lulu.com. Check it out!
 

http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html
 
There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report.  This way the teacher has the option!  Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout. 
 

It will take a week or so to get to you, so Order Now!
 
*Some of you have purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !
 
I have previously written in this blog about Nuclear Power and one issue of nuclear waste.  These entries include: 

Introduction to Nuclear Chemistry on 02/11/2015 ;  Nuclear Chemistry -- Part II
(Fission, Fusion & Half-Life)
on 02/18/2015 ; and,
Current Event -- Radioactive Waste from WWII on 10/30/2015.
 
A current issue about nuclear waste storage has developed between the two adjacent countries of Canada and the United States regarding an important source of fresh water, Lake Huron.
 
“Lake Huron is the second largest Great Lake by surface area and the fifth largest freshwater lake in the world. “

http://www.great-lakes.net/lakes/ref/huronfact.html
 
“Ontario Power Generation (OPG), which supplies electricity in the Canadian province,
has long had plans to construct and operate a deep geologic repository (DGR) for nuclear waste at the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant near Kincardine. The DGR would be just under a half mile underground and store nearly 53 million gallons of ‘low and intermediate-level’ radioactive nuclear waste on a site three quarters of a mile from Lake Huron…that provides drinking water for millions of people in two countries.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/20/lake-huron-nuclear-waste-underground_n_5359955.html
 
“...Ontario Power Generation says the layers of rock where it proposes a deep underground nuclear waste storage facility are solid, stable and well-suited for the job. But what's at the surface and less than a mile away — the shores of Lake Huron — has people on the Michigan and Canadian sides of the Great Lake fiercely opposed to the plan.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/27/fears-surface-over-lake-huron-nuke-dump-proposal/3265423/

“ ‘I'm up in arms,’ said Michigan resident Sherry Hummel of Williamsburg. ‘It's just a dangerous, dangerous thing to do near 20% of the world's" unfrozen surface freshwater.’

For the 24 million U.S. residents who get drinking water from the Great Lakes, and those making their living from Michigan's $2.4 billion fishing industry and $13 billion tourism industry, it's a vital policy decision over which their elected representatives have no control.”
 
“OPG wants to bury approximately 200,000 cubic meters of low to medium level nuclear waste 680 meters – just under a half mile – below ground.”  This article contains a diagram of the proposed site.

http://michiganradio.org/post/plans-bury-nuclear-waste-near-lake-huron-hit-new-roadblock#stream/0
“Canada's environment minister, Catherine McKenna, is now requesting additional information from OPG about the project including: alternate locations for the project; cumulative environmental effects of the project; and an updated list of mitigation commitment for each identified adverse effect, under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012.”
 
“ ‘One only has to look at other nuclear accidents … where human error resulted in an accidental radiation release,’ Kildee said. ‘Human error is always a possibility, and if an accident were to happen on the shores of the Great Lakes, a nuclear radiation release could endanger the freshwater supply for over 40 million people, both in the U.S. and Canada.’

Pavlov urged Michigan residents to write to [President] Obama and [Secretary of State] Kerry, asking them to invoke the International Joint Commission, a joint U.S. and Canadian agency that works to resolve boundary water disputes.
‘There's a 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty that was designed to resolve disputes on the waters of the Great Lakes,’ he said. ‘We have a mechanism there, and we have to use it.’ "

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/05/07/great-lakes-huron-nuclear-radioactive-waste-underground/70976000/
 
“A 100-plus year old treaty could act as the legal basis for stopping a proposed nuclear waste repository on the Canadian side of Lake Huron, according to one of Michigan's two Democratic U.S. senators.”

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2015/08/stabenow_nuclear_waste_bill.html
This article contains a map of where the proposed storage facility would be located.
 

Here is another issue that would be good for class discussion, an Extra Credit assignment, or coordination with the Social Studies department teachers.  This is especially interesting because of the international aspect, border issues, and 1909 treaty being cited.
 
*Remember, this Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom.  Remember, you can check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.
 
Also, 
Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.
 

Buying a copy of the lab book Chemistry on a Budget can be very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas, especially at the end of the school year.


Good luck next week at school!
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    Marjorie R. Heesemann is a chemistry teacher with 15 years of experience who is now working to develop resources for the Chemistry classroom.

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