N-plant ends fuel rod pact

WISCASSET – Maine Yankee has terminated its contract with the company that was responsible for transferring highly radioactive spent fuel into airtight containers for storage.

Maine Yankee Chief Nuclear Officer Michael Meisner said the decision, revealed Thursday night at a meeting of the Community Advisory Council, was driven by the company’s failure to live up to obligations.

“This is a business decision,” Meisner said. “It is not about safety.”

Also at the meeting, the Maine Yankee board of directors announced the selection of Chewonki Foundation to receive the 200-acre Eaton Farm property adjacent to the former nuclear power plant.

Maine Yankee’s donation of the land was part of the settlement of a 1998 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rate case. Several proposals had been submitted for creating a preserve and environmental education center.

As for the storage of spent fuel, Maine Yankee officials were unhappy that the transfer of spent fuel rods to the so-called Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation was taking too long.

NAC International was supposed to have completed the job in October but only 15 out of 60 canisters are in place, said Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes.

Options for Maine Yankee include signing another contract with NAC, putting the project out to bid, or having Maine Yankee take over the project. NAC designed and provides the canisters used to store the spent fuel.

To minimize delays, NAC will continue its work on an interim basis while Maine Yankee studies its options.

A message left at NAC’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta was not immediately returned Friday.

Altogether, 1,434 fuel rods are being moved from a pool of water into airtight canisters where they will be stored for at least 20 years until a federal nuclear waste repository is built.

The stainless steel canisters are surrounded by concrete casks. The casks are stored on a concrete pad.

Howes said the delay in the transfer of fuel will not delay the decommissioning of Maine Yankee. The reactor vessel was removed from the site in September, and decommissioning is expected to be completed in 2005.

“We are still on track to complete the decommissioning project on time,” the spokesman said.