Could Maine Yankee become a regional nuclear waste site?

Bart Jansen

WASHINGTON - A Bush administration proposal to reprocess nuclear waste and store it at sites across the country has sparked concerns that the site of the dismantled Maine Yankee nuclear power plant could become a regional magnet for radioactive waste. The administration’s proposal - called Global Nuclear Energy Partnership - aims to reprocess waste so that less is stored permanently at a proposed dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Legislation awaiting a Senate vote also envisions temporary storage at sites across the country because Yucca Mountain is years behind schedule to open.

But critics, including House members who cut funding for the proposal in their version of the spending bill, contend that supporting the program would divert resources and support for Yucca Mountain.

The concern among Maine lawmakers, municipal officials and advocacy groups is that Maine Yankee could become a magnet for New England waste. The Wiscasset site already has 600 metric tons of nuclear waste that the federal government was supposed to cart away for federal storage in 1998.

“I think it could lead to a situation where Maine might be stuck holding the bag here,” said Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Lyman’s advocacy group is part of a coalition effort that includes Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Sierra Club to urge Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to oppose the program in a spending bill.

Snowe and Collins, both Republicans, haven’t said how they will vote on the bill awaiting action in the Senate. But each opposed storing nuclear waste at Maine Yankee for the 25 years that the legislation allows.

“Having led the charge to defeat the potential placement of a second national nuclear repository in Maine in the 1980s, I will unequivocally oppose any legislation that could open up the state of Maine to either a nuclear fuel reprocessing site or an interim storage facility,” Snowe said.

“I would vigorously oppose any effort to store outside waste in Maine,” Collins said. “I will also continue to push the federal government to ensure that the waste that we have currently is removed from Maine in a safe and secure manner.”

Congress has grappled for decades with how and where to store waste from nuclear power plants that generate 20 percent of the country’s electricity. The federal government collects a tax for waste storage and was supposed to open Yucca Mountain by 1998 - a year after Maine Yankee’s board agreed to close.

About 55,000 metric tons of waste has accumulated nationwide, with another 2,000 piling up each year. At Maine Yankee, nuclear waste is sealed in 64 casks, which are concrete and steel silos designed to last for decades.

The federal government was supposed to create a permanent repository for nuclear waste by 1998. But political opposition and technical concerns have prevented the Energy Department from even applying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission yet to open Yucca Mountain.

President Bush proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership in his State of the Union speech Jan. 31. The goal is to sift uranium from spent fuel roads for use again to spur production of nuclear power around the world.

One problem, however, is that reprocessing also yields plutonium that could be used in nuclear weapons.

The Energy Department contends the program will render plutonium unsuitable for weapons. Bush proposed spending $250 million this year on research and development of such a program.

But a skeptical House voted May 11 to cut $96 million. In an accompanying report, the Appropriations Committee expressed “serious reservations” about the program for lack of details about how the program would work. “Unfortunately, it appears that the department has decided to put . . . Yucca Mountain on the back burner,” the House report said.

In contrast, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted June 29 to increase the project’s $250 million by $36 million.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said he was “impressed” with the program because Yucca “is a long way off.” He is chairman of both the Energy Committee that sets policy and the Appropriations subcommittee on energy that sets spending priorities.

“These provisions are the next logical step to managing our spent nuclear fuel,” Domenici said. “I hope we can finally unclog this drain.”

Critics note that the Senate bill allows the energy secretary to take title to closed plants such as Maine Yankee and take responsibility for the storage of high-level nuclear waste until it can be moved. Another provision calls on the energy secretary to designate a consolidation site for waste within any state with a reactor for 25 years.

Governors could nominate an eligible site, but the federal secretary would make the decision.

“The state has no power to stop this,” said Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Maine, in particular, might be seen as a good candidate for this by proponents as a New England regional facility.”

Maine officials vowed to oppose interim storage or reprocessing at Maine Yankee.

“I’m very concerned,” said Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine. “It’ll adversely affect Yucca Mountain and that will mean that we’ll have nuclear waste in Maine for years, if not decades, longer.”

Wiscasset Town Manager Andrew Gilmore said the town has no interest in increasing storage at Maine Yankee or hosting a reprocessing center. The power plant once provided $12 million in taxes to the town, but now pays only $1.2 million. The community is focused on maritime economic development.

“We would adamantly oppose it,” Gilmore said. “Expanding the storage facility in any way, shape or form we would view that as very adverse.”

Scott Peterson, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group representing 275 power plants, said the federal government wouldn’t foist storage on a state that didn’t support it. He expected the federal government to deal with states that sought reprocessing plants because they create economic growth in communities and at universities.

“I think those are coveted projects,” he said. “If you look at what the government does with other projects, I think they’ll look at federal facilities first, or at least partners that would like to participate cooperatively in that kind of a venture.”

Something needs to change, however, either in the creation of waste or its disposal.

The government faces 60 federal lawsuits, including one from Maine Yankee, for failing to meet its obligations for permanent waste storage by 1998. The government estimated it will spend $2 billion to $3 billion if Yucca opens in 2010, and an additional $500 million each year after that.

Meanwhile, since 1985, the federal government collected 0.1 cents per kilowatt hour from nuclear plants to pay for permanent storage. But, after collecting $24 billion, the government has spent only $7 billion - and Yucca Mountain still isn’t open.

“The nation’s debt to these customers is long past due,” Robert Garvin, a Wisconsin Public Service commissioner representing the National Association of Nuclear Regulatory Utility Commissioners, told a House hearing March 10.

Yucca Mountain is limited by law to accept 70,000 metric tons of waste. Even though administration advocates say the site could be expanded to accept 120,000 metric tons, industry advocates contend reprocessing would slow the need for finding more permanent storage locations.

“Our objective is to expand the use of nuclear energy in the United States, period,” Dennis Spurgeon, assistant secretary of energy, told a House hearing April 5 in support of the reprocessing program. “And this is one thing we can do to remove one of the perceived roadblocks.”