Environmental groups are accusing the federal government of abdicating its responsibility to protect Canadians by not acting against an Ontario nuclear utility's proposed plan to ship radioactive waste through the Great Lakes.

Bruce Power has applied to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for permission to ship 16 radiation-contaminated steam generators from its facility in Tiverton, Ont., to Sweden for re-processing. (Bruce Power)

The groups say allowing Bruce Power to ship 16 radioactive steam generators the size of school buses through the lakes and across the Atlantic Ocean for processing in Sweden sets a dangerous precedent. They say it could open the way for more nuclear waste to be moved on Canadian waterways.

Bruce Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility said Canada should not start shipping radioactive waste outside of the country.

"This is just the tip of an enormous iceberg," Edwards told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is holding a hearing in Ottawa on Tuesday and Wednesday on Bruce Power's application to refurbish its nuclear generating plant on the shores of Lake Huron, which would include the controversial shipment plan.

Utility fights 'misinformation'

The CNSC's staff studied the worst-case scenarios and has already said there are no safety concerns that would prevent it from issuing a licence to Bruce Power for the shipment.

Bruce Power, a private nuclear utility that generates about one-fifth of Ontario's electricity, has insisted the shipping process is safe and the level of radioactivity in the steam generators is minimal compared to X-rays and pacemakers.

Duncan Hawthorne, the utility's chief executive officer, said Tuesday he is aware Bruce Power is going against public opinion, but told commissioners the plan is the "environmentally sound thing to do."

"The reason the anxiety is so high is that they've had misinformation, and some of it's pretty irresponsible," Hawthorne said.

Feds 'pretending to be powerless'

Edwards said the Canadian government should immediately work out a policy to prevent the export of nuclear waste, he said.

"We believe they have surrendered so much power to the nuclear industry they are pretending to be powerless," Edwards said.

Bruce Power's original plan called for the generators to be stored on-site in Tiverton, Ont., 250 kilometres northwest of Toronto, in a giant concrete bunker called the Western Waste Management Facility. But the company says space is an issue and considers on-site storage the worst-case option from an environmental standpoint.

In 2005, Bruce Power applied for and received permission from the CNSC to refurbish its nuclear facility in Tiverton. But last April, the utility asked the commission for a change to its refurbishment licence.

The utility now wants Studsvik, a Swedish company that specializes in decommissioning nuclear power plants, to reprocess their contaminated steam generators.

Studsvik will separate the radioactive metal from the metal that isn't radioactive.

It will sell the clean metal on the scrap metal market and send the radioactive material back to Canada for storage in a container the size of an oil barrel.

The panel of nuclear safety commissioners still has to decide whether to take the advice of its staff and will have until mid-November to decide on Bruce Power's application.

With files from The Canadian Press