Wayne County Commission discusses plans to store radioactive waste in the county

DETROIT, Michigan (FOX 2) – Wayne County commissioners will hold a public discussion on a recently announced plan to dispose of hazardous radioactive waste at a landfill in Van Buren Township.

The public discussion is scheduled for Tuesday, August 27, at 1 p.m. at the Guardian Building, 500 Griswold, in downtown Detroit.

Tuesday’s meeting can also be accessed via Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/2234975895. It will also be livestreamed on the Wayne County Commission’s YouTube page.

“The dumping of nuclear waste poses a serious threat to area residents and our entire county, and we want to make sure their voices are heard,” said Alisha Bell (Democrat, Detroit), chair of the Wayne County Commission. “We are the 19th most populous county in the country and have the world’s largest freshwater supply. There are certainly other, less populated and less risky places to store this waste.”

Environmental officials such as Elizabeth Browne of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and Patrick Cullen of the county’s Environmental Services Division have been invited to attend. Former Wayne County Commissioner Kevin McNamara, supervisor of Van Buren Township, is also expected to attend.

The commissioners said they hoped to provide enough information to divert the dangerous nuclear waste elsewhere.

County, state and federal officials expressed shock and dismay when it was announced earlier this week that the landfill is set to receive truckloads of thousands of tons of radioactive waste, some of which dates back to the development of the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project in the 1940s.