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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 and Greater than Class C waste (GTCC waste is irradiated steel removed from the reactor vessel during plant decommissioning). 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 contractual and statutory obligation under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to remove this material from the site.
DOE was to have begun removing the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC Waste by January 31, 1998. To date, DOE has not removed any spent nuclear fuel or GTCC waste from the site, and it is unknown 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 and GTCC waste. In the meantime, it is Maine Yankee's responsibility to store the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste 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.
The plant's spent nuclear fuel as well as its GTCC waste 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.
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 nuclear fuel assemblies were moved from the plant's spent fuel pool to the dry cask storage facility known as the ISFSI. Following final transfer of the spent nuclear 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 11-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 and the GTCC waste. 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 licensed by the NRC 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 nuclear fuel and GTCC waste will be removed from the concrete casks and shipped in specially designed transport casks. Transportation from the site could be by either rail, barge, or heavy haul truck.
The U.S. Department of Energy'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 or GTCC waste, Maine Yankee must plan to store this material on-site for likely many years to come.
In return for DOE removing the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste, electric ratepayers who benefit from nuclear power paid for the disposal of the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste. 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.
DOE Litigation
Since 1998 Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company, Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company, and Yankee Atomic Electric Company have been in litigation with the DOE seeking monetary damages as a result of the DOE's partial breach of its contractual obligations to take title and begin removing spent nuclear fuel and Greater than Class C waste (GTCC waste) from the three sites by the end of January 1998. Four rounds of litigation are now complete. To date the 3 Yankee Companies have recovered approximately $575.5 million in court awarded damages.
The longer the federal government delays in fulfilling its contractual obligation to remove the material, the longer these single-asset companies are required to remain in business and the damages will continue. The ongoing litigation between the three companies and the DOE is being conducted in phases as an earlier U.S. Federal Appeals Court decision ruled that utility companies, such as the three Yankee Companies, cannot receive damage awards for costs that have not yet been incurred. As a result, the three companies expect to continue to litigate with the DOE every several years to request damages for costs incurred resulting from the federal government's failure to remove the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste from the three Yankee sites as required by contract.
At the conclusion of the Phase I cases and all appeals, in early 2013 the three companies received payment of approximately $160 million in court awarded damages from the federal government for the years through 2001 for Connecticut Yankee and Yankee Atomic and through 2002 for Maine Yankee.
In November 2013, as a result of the Phase II litigation, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge James F. Merow awarded the three companies approximately $235.4 million in damages for the years 2002/3-2008 resulting from DOE's continuing failure to remove the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste from the sites. The federal government decided not to appeal Judge Merow's ruling and the Phase II awards were paid by the U.S. Treasury to the three companies in the spring of 2014.
In April 2016 as a result of the Phase III litigation filed in 2013, Judge Merow awarded the three companies approximately $76.8 million in damages for the years 2009/2012 resulting from the DOE's continuing failure to remove the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste from the sites. The federal government decided not to appeal Judge Merow's ruling and the Phase III awards were paid by the U.S. Treasury to the three companies in the fall of 2016.
In February 2019 as a result of the Phase IV litigation filed in 2017, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Nancy Firestone issued her decision on a motion for partial summary judgment filed in July 2018 by Maine Yankee, Connecticut Yankee, and Yankee Atomic awarding the three companies approximately $103.2 million in undisputed damages for costs related to the federal government's continuing failure to honor its contractual obligations to remove spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste from the three sites for the period January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2016. The undisputed damages awards were paid by the U.S. Treasury to the three companies in June 2019. Also in June, the 3 Yankee Companies and the DOE agreed to a negotiated Order of Judgment for $500,000 to resolve the disputed damages in the Phase IV cases. Receipt of these additional damages from the U.S, Treasury occurred in July 2019.
The Phase V DOE litigation cases filed by the 3 Yankee Companies on March 25, 2021 seek recovery of monetary damages resulting from the federal government's ongoing failure to fulfill its contractual obligations to remove the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste from the three Yankee sites for the years 2017-2021. The cases have been assigned to U.S. Court of Claims Judge Thompson M. Dietz.
The Phase I-IV DOE litigation proceeds were dispositioned consistent with the provisions of a 2013 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order. The FERC approved a filing following the award of the Phase I damages funds that accepted an agreement reached between the three companies and the state utility regulators in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts that have historically intervened in the companies' FERC rate cases. That agreement detailed an approach for applying the Phase I damages proceeds and future damages awards in a manner that best serves the interests of the 3 companies, and their utility owners and ratepayers in the respective New England states.
Please go to the Document Room to read the court decisions and company statements that include further background information regarding the ongoing litigation.
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 nuclear fuel and GTCC waste, 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, Connecticut Yankee and Yankee Rowe, members of our Community Advisory Panel, as well as others throughout the country who have spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste stranded in their communities.
Within that context Maine Yankee participates in a number of groups dedicated to moving the spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste. They include: the Decommissioning Plant Coalition, a group of 13 permanently shutdown plants stretching from Maine to California that place priority on the revival of the nation's program for the management and ultimate disposition of indefinitely stranded spent nuclear fuel and GTCC waste at shutdown sites; the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, an ad hoc national organization representing the collective interests of state utility regulators, attorneys general, consumer advocates, local governments, electric utilities with operating and/or shutdown nuclear reactors, and other experts on nuclear waste policy matters; and an Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Alternatives Forum that seeks to move spent nuclear and GTCC waste out of New England.