The head of Bruce Power shot back at the chorus of voices opposed to his company’s plan to send low-level radioactive waste through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway to Sweden for recycling, suggesting they are spreading misinformation.

“As soon as this became a public discourse that affected my reputation and the reputation of my company,” said Duncan Hawthorne, president and chief executive of Bruce Power, “it was entirely appropriate to be (here).”

Hawthorne made the comments during the first of two days of hearings at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on the company’s application to transport 16 decommissioned steam generators to a specialized recycler in Sweden.

It would be the first time nuclear waste materials would be transported by road and waterway out of Canada.

The Ottawa hearings were only put in place due to huge public outcry from municipalities, aboriginal groups and environmentalists concerned about allowing radioactive shipments through the waterways.

Hawthorne countered that the public dialogue had become tainted with “misinformation and scare tactics.”

He, along with commission staff who reviewed the application, say the radioactive contamination is minuscule and poses no risk to human or environmental health.

Environmental groups and the mayors of more than 100 communities in the affected area say otherwise. They oppose the private nuclear power producer’s plans.

“Canada’s policy for nuclear waste is that the waste remains where it is until there is an ultimate solution for Canadian waste,” said John Bennett, executive director of Sierra Club Canada, in an interview. “What they’re trying to do here is establish that it’s okay to ship it halfway around the world and to do it from now on.”

“Do we really want the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence to become routine transportation routes for radioactive debris for decrepit nuclear reactors?” echoed Kevin Kamps, a researcher for Washington-based Beyond Nuclear, at a news conference Tuesday.

The 100-tonne steam generators come from units of the Bruce A generating station near Kincardine.

They were removed from service in the 1990s.

They are to be sent to Studsvik, a Swedish company that can reprocess the generator metal and reduce the amount of waste that would need to be stored.

The route would take the generators along roads to Owen Sound, where they would be loaded by crane onto transport ships. They would then navigate the lakes and seaway before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

Commission staff said there was no assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act because it didn’t meet the criteria as a “project,” and the nuclear activity was far below the assessment threshold.

The Sierra Club says Bruce Power is trying to pull an “end run” around an environmental assessment because the assessment done for Bruce A’s refurbishment didn’t include the idea of transporting the waste abroad.

At the hearing, commission staff went through worst-case scenarios, including a sinking of the transport ship.

They explained the radioactive contamination was found inside the generators and was considered “low level.” Based on the staff’s calculations, a release of the waste into drinking water would still be two-thirds less than the allowable public dose.

Environmentalists also view Studsvik’s recycling process as suspect. A Studsvik representative confirmed Tuesday the recycled metal still contains radioactivity.

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While Hawthorne characterized the plan as one good for the environment and unrelated to costs, Bennett called this “nonsense.”

“This is a way to reduce costs for Bruce Power,” Bennett said. “They won’t be paying in perpetuity for the storage of this waste.”