Spent Fuel Storage / Removal

Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company located on Bailey Point Peninsula in Wiscasset, Maine is an interim facility for the safe, secure storage of spent nuclear fuel.   The facility is staffed seven days a week, 24 hours a day.   This will remain the case until the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) fulfills its obligation to dispose of this material or another viable solution for removing the spent fuel from the site emerges.


By statue 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 uncertain when it will. As discussed below, Maine Yankee is seeking monetary damages in litigation against the federal government for its failure to remove the spent nuclear fuel. In the meantime, it is Maine Yankee’s responsibility to store the spent nuclear fuel in accordance with its U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license and all applicable regulations.


From 1972 until permanent shutdown in 1997, Maine Yankee operated a 900 megawatt pressurized water reactor at the Wiscasset site.   The nuclear power plant underwent a successful decommissioning from 1997-2005 with all plant structures removed to three feet below grade and the site restored to stringent clean-up standards.   See more under Decommissioning Overview.


The plant’s spent nuclear fuel as well as its Greater than Class C (GTCC) waste (irradiated steel removed from the plant’s reactor vessel) is stored in dry cask storage units at Maine Yankee’s Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI).   The ISFSI was constructed during the decommissioning project.   Like spent nuclear fuel, GTCC waste is the responsibility of the federal government to dispose.


Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation


The NRC licenses and regulates two methods of spent fuel storage: spent fuel pools where water removes decay heat from the fuel assemblies and provides shielding from radioactivity; and dry cask storage containers where circulating air removes the decay heat and massive steel and concrete casks provide the radiological shielding.  Both methods require an NRC approved security system, emergency plan, and monitoring.


During plant decommissioning Maine Yankee’s 1434 spent fuel assemblies were moved from the plant’s fuel pool to the newly constructed dry cask storage facility known as the ISFSI.  Following final transfer of the spent fuel to the ISFSI in February 2004, the spent fuel pool was drained, demolished and removed along with the rest of the former power plant. 


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. 


Maine Yankee uses NAC International’s (NAC) UMS system to house its spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste.  NAC International is located in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the world’s leading fuel cycle experts.  The NAC UMS system is designed for both storage and transport.  Dry cask storage is widely used throughout the United States and internationally.


For more information on the storage of spent nuclear fuel go to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy, and/or the Nuclear Energy Institute’s web sites.


Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel 

 

When the time comes to move the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste from the Maine Yankee site, the sealed canisters containing the spent fuel and GTCC waste will be removed from the concrete casks and shipped in specially designed transport casks.  The most likely mode of transport is via the rail line that serves the Maine Yankee site. 

Spent nuclear fuel is transported regularly in the United States and all over the world with an excellent safety record. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Transportation impose strict safety standards for transportation of spent fuel.  Casks are designed to protect the public from radiation during transportation and are put through rigorous tests. The NRC has a comprehensive licensing process that carefully reviews each cask design. Only casks licensed by the NRC can be used to transport waste.

 For more information on transportation of spent nuclear fuel, visit the web sites of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, and/or the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Spent Nuclear Fuel Removal

DOE’s Obligation

Under a contract that the U.S. Department of Energy signed with all nuclear plant owners, as well as the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the DOE was to have a disposal facility open and receiving spent fuel from Maine Yankee and other commercial plants by January 31, 1998.  Because the DOE missed the 1998 deadline and has yet to remove any spent nuclear fuel, Maine Yankee must plan to store spent fuel on-site for perhaps many years.

In return for DOE removing the spent nuclear fuel, electric ratepayers who benefit from nuclear power pay for the disposal of the spent fuel. Nationally electric ratepayers have met their side of the bargain having paid tens of billions of dollars into the federal Nuclear Waste Fund. They have yet to receive anything in return.

Lawsuit over DOE’s Failure to Remove Spent Fuel

Maine Yankee, Connecticut Yankee, Yankee Atomic Electric Company and most other commercial nuclear power utilities in the United States have filed lawsuits against the DOE seeking monetary damages resulting from DOE’s breach of its contract to begin removing spent nuclear fuel in 1998.


On September 30, 2006, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Senior Judge James F. Merow awarded Maine Yankee $75.8 million for damages incurred through 2002. In the same ruling Yankee Atomic Electric Company was awarded $32.9 million; and Connecticut Yankee $34.1 million. The federal government appealed Judge Merow's decision.


On August 7, 2008, a U.S. Federal Court of Appeals panel vacated Judge Merow’s decision sending the Yankee cases back to the lower court. A key finding of the Appeals panel was that the awarded damages were not calculated properly because the courts did not use the spent nuclear fuel acceptance rates in the 1987 Annual Capacity Report when calculating the damages. In its decision it is clear that the Appellate panel acknowledged, as did the lower courts, that the U.S. Department of Energy is liable for proven damages resulting from their failure to start picking up the spent nuclear fuel.


In the remanded cases the Yankee Companies included damage claims that they had tried to recover in the first case, arguing that they should be recoverable now based on the appellate court’s decision associated with the DOE’s spent fuel acceptance rate. In the remand case, Maine Yankee is seeking $82 million in damages through 2002.


In his pre-trial order for the remand cases, Judge Merow stated that he did not believe the scope of the remand allows him to reconsider these renewed damages claim. However, he acknowledged that his interpretation could be in error and that the companies could include offers of proof for these renewed damages claims. This preserves the opportunity to pursue the additional damages claims on appeal should the companies choose to do so.


The trial on the remand cases was held in Washington, DC in August, and a decision is expected in 2010.


Please go to Document Room to read the 2006 and 2008 court decisions and related documents.


On December 13, 2007, the Yankee Companies filed a second round of damages claims in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Maine Yankee’s claim in this case runs from January 1, 2003 - January 31, 2008. Maine Yankee is seeking $43 million in damages over the federal government’s failure to remove the spent nuclear fuel. Judge Merow has not issued any rulings in the case to date.


The longer the federal government delays in fulfilling its obligations the greater the potential monetary damages will be.

Other Spent Fuel Removal Efforts

Maine Yankee is regularly engaged with others in Maine, New England and nationally to bring pressure on the federal government to move the spent fuel and to identify creative solutions to this difficult problem.  Our partners in this effort include the State of Maine, the Maine congressional delegation, other New England states, our sisters plants Connecticut Yankee and Yankee Rowe, members of our Community Advisory Panel, as well as others throughout the country who have spent fuel stranded at nuclear plants in their communities.

Within that context Maine Yankee participates in a number of groups dedicated to moving the spent nuclear fuel.  They are: the Decommissioning Plant Coalition, a group of single-unit shutdown plants located in New England, the mid-west, and California; the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, a group of state regulators and utilities representing forty-one organizations in twenty-five states; and an Interim Storage Alternatives Forum that seeks to move spent fuel out of New England.

Community Advisory Panel

The Maine Yankee Community 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.  Click on Document Room to view the CAP Charter and CAP meeting minutes.

The panel 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 in August 1997.

All CAP meetings are open to the public and each meeting agenda includes a public comment period.  CAP members include the governor’s representative, the senator from Lincoln County, a business representative from the development north of Maine Yankee’s ISFSI, a representative from the Town of Wiscasset, a Maine Yankee representative, and members of the former decommissioning CAP. The Chair of the CAP is Marge Kilkelly, former Lincoln County state senator who also Chaired the decommissioning CAP.  Similarly, the Vice-chair is Don Hudson, President of the Chewonki Foundation.  CAP members have extensive knowledge about the storage and transport of spent nuclear fuel as well as the history of the government’s failure to meet its obligation for removing this material.