With the 2.4 magnitude earthquake Monday, Jan. 14, centered in the Boothbay/Edgecomb area, safety of the nuclear spent fuel stored at the Maine Yankee site in Wiscasset has been checked.

Following the earthquake on Monday, the staff conducted two site inspections to insure there was no damage. Although there was no damaged to the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI), the question has come up as to how the facility would stand up should a more severe event occur.

According to Eric Howes, Maine Yankee spokesperson, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires that nuclear facilities be able to withstand the most severe natural phenomena that may occur in their region, including earthquakes.

The Maine Yankee Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation system earthquake analysis is based on conservative U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements for sites east of the Rocky Mountains and is designed to provide required factors of safety that prevent cask movement.

The ISFSI engineering design analysis for earthquakes is based on ground acceleration rather than the Richter scale. Ground acceleration is a measure of ground movement during an earthquake and does not correspond readily to the Richter scale which is commonly used to express the magnitude of earthquakes, according to Howes.

“Yesterday’s earthquake was well within the ISFSI design. Even in the highly unlikely event of a beyond design basis earthquake that resulted in a cask tipping over, the fuel storage system is designed to remain in a safe condition,” Howes said.

The ISFSI 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 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 system is completely passive. Each cask is monitored remotely from the operations center. Technicians also make regular rounds to assure, among other things, that the air vents remain free of snow or debris.

A Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear future appointed by Pres. Obama submitted their report January 2012 to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The DOE released a report this past Friday: their assessment of the strategy recommended by the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission’s recommendations issued in the report, which included the removal of spent fuel from closed nuclear plants.

The DOE’s report recognizes the need to establish a sustainable integrated program to safety and efficiently manage used nuclear fuel from closed nuclear facilities. By statute and contract DOE was to have begun removing spent nuclear fuel from Maine Yankee in 1998. To date, DOE has not removed any spent fuel from the site, and it is still uncertain when it will.

“While we have not fully evaluated the report yet,” Howes said, “We are very pleased to note that the administration supports an integrated nuclear waste management system that includes several elements, including a pilot interim storage facility focused on serving shut-down reactor sites capable of accepting used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

“We are hopeful Congress and the Administration will move immediately to implement the report recommendations and we look forward to working with others to bring that about.”

The DOE strategy report is a significant milestone with regard to the evolving national nuclear waste management policy and with respect to moving spent nuclear fuel from the Yankee sites (Maine Yankee, Connecticut Yankee. and Yankee Atomic in MA). “We will continue to work together with other stakeholders to convince the Administration and Congress to implement the report’s recommendations,” Howes said.

With all that said, Howes pointed out, these are only recommendations and they don't guarantee DOE performance in the near term or otherwise.

It is also clear that there remain significant hurdles with Congress as well as the remainder of the program going forward. “Therefore, it is our belief that the spent nuclear fuel and high level waste will continue to remain at the Yankee sites for many years to come,” he said.