Activist group challenges fuel rod storage, transfer

WISCASSET – An activist group is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to halt the planned transfer of Maine Yankee’s spent fuel rods, saying that the agency did not consider the possibility of terrorist attacks when it approved the move.

Friends of the Coast Opposing Nuclear Pollution claims regulators are violating safety standards in the Atomic Energy Act by permitting spent nuclear fuel to be stored in airtight canisters in a facility on the site.

Margaret Mlynczak Stern, the attorney representing Friends of the Coast, wrote that the movement of spent fuel to the dry casks will result “in an immediate hazard to the health and safety of the public” because the NRC did not evaluate the possibility of terrorism.

Maine Yankee spokeswoman Catherine Ferdinand said plant owners are working closely with the NRC, which has issued interim regulations for casks and is evaluating security at plants like Maine Yankee.

Maine Yankee, which is in the process of being decommissioned, expects to begin moving the fuel rods later this summer, she said. The rods are now kept in a pool in the reactor’s containment building.