N-plant submits new plan Maine Yankee looks to meet standards

WISCASSET – Maine Yankee has submitted a revised license termination plan in which operators of the defunct nuclear power plant explain how they will meet the state’s strict radiological dose standard.

The changes were filed with the Nuclear Regulator Commission on Friday to show that Maine Yankee will comply with the state’s standards for radiation levels, which are stricter than levels allowed by the federal government.

The Maine standards were set last year by the Legislature. Maine Yankee ultimately abandoned its effort to bury some radioactive debris on the property to meet the Maine guidelines, said spokesman Eric Howes.

The NRC requires Maine Yankee to meet a residual radiological dose of 25 millirem per year when the decommissioning is complete. The Maine law requires a residual dose of 10 millirem with no more than 4 millirem from groundwater.

“We’ll be cleaning up the site to the Maine standard, which is more stringent than the NRC standards,” Howes said.

Maine Yankee began decommissioning in 1997 and is scheduled to complete the process in 2004. To date, more than 28 million pounds of waste have been shipped out-of-state from the site in Wiscasset.