DETROIT -- Members of the U.S. Congress from Michigan are urging Justin Trudeau not to allow burial of nuclear waste less than two kilometres from Lake Huron.

Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow joined Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee in sending a letter Thursday to the newly elected prime minister.

It asks him to reject a plan by Ontario Power Generation to bury hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of so-called low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste 680 metres underground at a site near Kincardine, Ont.

The company has said there's virtually no chance the project will contaminate the lake, but opponents say anything could happen over thousands of years.

An advisory panel endorsed the plan in May, but a group opposed to the billion-dollar project launched a court challenge arguing the panel was biased, failed to consider Canada's international obligations, and violated Canadian environmental rules. Federal Court won't hear that case until next year.

Former environment minister Leona Aglukkaq had promised to make a decision by Dec. 2, ostensibly to allow for public input on any conditions that should be imposed.