The Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel on Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Removal will meet from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 20 at the Davis Island Grill in Edgecomb.

When the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant in Wiscasset closed prematurely in 1997 after 25 years of operation, the company decided to create a panel of community stakeholders who would become the resident experts on issues related to the plant’s decommissioning process.

Maine Yankee formed the Community Advisory Panel on Decommissioning the same year to provide advice to the company and to serve as a liaison to the public, holding their first meeting on August 21, 1997.

The Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel meetings not only provided an opportunity for Maine Yankee, the state and federal agencies to report the activities of the decommissioning, it also was a place for the public to come ask questions and express their concerns.

The Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel meetings became Maine Yankee’s report card on how the decommissioning was going. The members came from all walks of life, each having their own opinion and concerns. They identified many community issues, and their efforts many times influenced the decisions by the company.

The Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel on Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Removal is an outgrowth of its predecessor the Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel on Decommissioning which was integral to the success of plant decommissioning from the beginning of the project until the decommissioning was completed in the fall of 2005.

Maine Yankee’s spent nuclear fuel and Greater than Class C Waste is stored at the 12-acre Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI).

The ISFSI is what remains at the site following the successful decommissioning of the Maine Yankee nuclear plant.

Maine Yankee is actively involved with the State of Maine, members of Congress, our Community Advisory Panel members, and others in New England and nationally urging the federal government to fulfill its obligation to remove the spent nuclear fuel.

Maine Yankee is also seeking monetary damages from the federal government over its failure to remove the spent nuclear fuel. By law the Department of Energy was to have begun removing spent fuel from the Maine Yankee site in 1998.

The ISFSI is an approximately a 12-acre open-air facility with an adjacent security and operations building. The facility contains 60 air-tight sealed steel canisters of spent nuclear fuel and four of GTCC waste. These air-tight steel canisters are housed inside massive concrete and steel casks on concrete pads. Vents at the base and top of each cask circulate air that removes decay heat from the spent nuclear fuel.

The Maine Yankee Advisory Panel on Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Removal was established in March 2005 to enhance open communication, public involvement and education on the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at Maine Yankee and to advocate for its prompt removal from Maine Yankee to a safe location outside New England.

This is the 15th anniversary meeting of the panel and will include updates by Maine Yankee and the State of Maine on activities at the Maine Yankee site and developments on the spent nuclear fuel issue since their last met in September 2011 as well as a public comment period.

The agenda includes updates from: Patrick Dostie, State Nuclear Safety Inspector; Jim Connell Vice President and ISFSI Manager; and Eric Howes, Maine Yankee Public and Government Affairs Director. For more information about the meeting, call Howes at 577-1089.

According to the plant’s history, the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company formed in 1966 and the 4-year, $231 million construction of the plant began in 1968 and ended in 1972 when commercial operation of the plant began.

Originally, Maine Yankee Power had a 40-year license to run the plant. Over its 25 years as Maine's sole operating nuclear power plant, the power station produced much of Maine's power.

From 1972 through 1996 the 900 megawatt reactor produced about 119,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity.