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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Great Lakes Nuclear Waste: Another Threat to MI Water Quality?

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Tuesday, March 1, 2016   

LANSING, Mich. - Between Canada and the United States, there are 38 nuclear reactors on the Great Lakes and a watchdog group says if something isn't done, the world's largest body of surface water will become a nuclear garbage dump.

Dave Kraft is director of the Nuclear Energy Information Service.

He says safe energy may not be as exciting as other topics to advocate for, but people who want safe drinking water should get involved.

Kraft cites some international disasters as examples of what could happen here.

"We have the fifth anniversary of the Japanese Fukushima disaster, which took place on March 11, 2011," says Kraft. "But it's also the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster; the anniversary is April 26 of this year."

The Great Lakes supply drinking water for more than 40 million people, and Kraft says with all the nuclear reactors on their shores, it's reasonable for Americans to demand protection.

Kraft says what's happening in Flint brings to mind this question, How safe is our water?

"Mistakes happen, accidents happen," he says. "So, we're concerned that there's quite a cavalier attitude on the part of regulators, on the part of government officials, as we have seen exemplified in Flint, that we can't afford that level of risk on the Great Lakes, to have some sort of a nuclear accident."

Kraft says the government is considering creating new waste sites that would mean moving toxic materials by truck, rail and barge.

He believes that's another potential disaster that needs attention.

"Radioactive materials tend to re-concentrate through a lot of biological processes, through a lot of chemical processes," says Kraft. "And particularly as we get into a more climate-stressed scenario of the future, the constraints on water are going to be different."

Kraft urges people to become more vigilant in the effort to protect water sources, while at the same time moving toward a more renewable energy future.


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