Assessment dispute over N-plant settled

WISCASSET – A two-year dispute between Maine Yankee and the town of Wiscasset over how to assess the former Maine Yankee nuclear power plant’s property has been settled.

The disagreement focused on how to assign property value for tax purposes to Maine Yankee’s spent nuclear fuel site. The state’s only nuclear plant ceased operations in 1997, and the land at issue houses more than 600 tons of spent fuel rods kept in steel and concrete casks.

Representatives of the plant took issue with the town’s assessment of $212 million, and claimed the value of the land was closer to $4.3 million. According to the agreement signed Wednesday, the land where the spent fuel is stored is assessed at $100,000 and the at $4.8 million casks containing nuclear waste.

Terms of the agreement say the town will receive a total of $19.8 million in taxes over 20 years, including an immediate payment of $2.8 million to cover taxes owed and not paid for 2003 and 2004. Annual payments over time will decline.

Adjusted to today’s dollars, the total payments over the 20-year term amount to $15.3 million.