III 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 117 

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. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 22, 2023 

Ms. STABENOW (for herself, Mr. PETERS, Ms. BALDWIN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, 

Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Ms. SMITH, and Mr. BROWN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 

Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

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. 

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; 


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•SRES 117 IS 

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 formerly 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 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 


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•SRES 117 IS 

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 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that— 

2 (1) the Government of Canada should not allow 

3 a permanent nuclear waste repository to be built 

4 within the Great Lakes Basin; 

5 (2) the President and the Secretary of State 

6 should take appropriate action to work with the Gov7 ernment of Canada to prevent a permanent nuclear 

8 waste repository from being built within the Great 

9 Lakes Basin; and 

10 (3) the President and the Secretary of State 

11 should work together with their counterparts in the 

12 Government of Canada on a solution for the long13 term storage of nuclear waste that— 

14 (A) is safe and responsible; and 

15 (B) does not pose a threat to the Great 

16 Lakes. 

Æ 


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