The Community Advisory Panel on spent nuclear fuel storage and removal received updates from Maine Yankee on the progress made to remove spent nuclear fuel from the Wiscasset site. The discussion took place during their annual meeting on September 20 at the Davis Grill in Edgecomb.

Removing the spent fuel has proven to be a long and largely fruitless endeavor.

The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository was a planned deep geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel and other high level radioactive waste. Such facilities are designed to store nuclear waste deep below the surface. However, the project was abandoned.

“The Yucca Mountain program, for all practical purposes, has ceased to exist. Maine Yankee continues to work with the state of Maine, our congressional delegation and others advocating for the federal government to fulfill its obligation to remove the spent nuclear fuel and greater than Class C waste from the Wiscasset (site),” Maine Yankee Public and Government Affairs Director Eric Howes said.

The future of nuclear

On January 29, 2010, the White House released a memorandum from President Barack Obama to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu directing him to establish and staff a Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

The Commission was charged with doing a comprehensive review of policies for managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, including all alternatives for the storage, processing, and disposal of civilian and defense used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste.

“Given the uncertainty and long lead time for action, we expect the spent nuclear fuel to remain on site at Maine Yankee for many years.”

On January 26, 2012, the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future released its final report for managing nuclear waste in the U.S. to the Secretary of Energy.

The Commission recommended the establishment of a “first in line” priority to move spent fuel and other materials being stored at permanently shut down nuclear facilities like Maine Yankee.

“We, along with many other agencies, support the Blue Ribbon Commission recommendations and urge their implementation,” Howes told the Community Advisory Panel members.

“We are encouraged by the bipartisan interest in reform, but given the uncertainty and long lead time for action we expect the spent nuclear fuel to remain on site at Maine Yankee for many years,” he said.

 Maine Yankee vs. U.S.

The Department of Energy should have started to remove the spent fuel from the Maine Yankee and other nuclear sites in 1998.

Due to the department's failure to do just that, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit awarded nearly $160 million to Maine Yankee, Yankee Rowe of Massachusetts, and Connecticut Yankee on May 18th.

Maine Yankee was awarded $82 million for costs incurred to construct the Independent Spent Fuel and storage of the fuel through 2002. However, Maine Yankee has not seen any of the money yet. On August 1, the government filed a petition with the court for a rehearing, which was denied by the court on September 5. According to Howes, the government could still file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The company (Maine Yankee) does not expect the government to pay the awarded damages until the case is final and non-appealable,” Howes said.

In December of 2007, Maine Yankee filed a second round of damage claims in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims for $35 million for damages incurred from January 2002 through December 2008. That trial was held in October 2011, and a decision in the case could be issued this year, according to Howes.

Maine Yankee vs. Wiscasset

A 2-year dispute between Maine Yankee and the town of Wiscasset over a property tax assessment of the former Maine Yankee nuclear power plant was settled in 2005. Terms of the agreement would allow the town to receive a total of $19.8 million over 20 years.

According to Wiscasset’s assessing agent Sue Varney, the first payment in 2003 was $1.750 million, and the last payment in 2022 will be $600,000. The payment for tax-year 2012-2013 was $850,000.

Not only will the agreement between the town and Maine Yankee expire in 2022, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission storage license for Maine Yankee’s canister system (what the spent fuel rods and greater than Class C materials are stored in) will expire in 2022.

It would appear the spent fuel will stay in Wiscasset beyond 2022. In December of 2010, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission finalized changes to its Waste Confidence Rule. It found that spent nuclear fuel can be safely stored at independent storage facilities for at least 60 years beyond the license life of a reactor.

According to the report given to Community Advisory Panel, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will plan a long-term waste confidence rule to evaluate the storage and transport of spent nuclear fuel up to 300 years in the future.

The spent fuel storage facility at the Wiscasset site is an approximately 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 Greater than Class C waste. These air-tight steel canisters are housed inside massive concrete and steel casks on concrete pads.

Over its 25 years as Maine's sole operating nuclear power plant, it produced much of Maine's power. From 1972 through 1996 the 900 megawatt reactor produced about 119,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity.