MAINE YANKEE LESSONS

With high fuel prices and fears about shortages of natural gas, coupled with concerns over greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired plants, nuclear power is again being discussed as a source of electricity. The Maine Yankee plant, where decommissioning was certified as complete by the federal government last week, can offer important lessons as the nuclear industry, for the first time in years, seriously considers building new reactors in the United States. One lesson is that the federal government must fulfill its commitment to open a repository for nuclear waste. A second is to be transparent to the public.

Opened in 1972, Maine Yankee was licensed to operate until 2008. In 1994, cracks were discovered in steam generator tubes in the Wiscasset plant. The facility was shut down for a year while the cracks were repaired. After more problems and an appearance on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s list of the worst-run power plants, the Maine Yankee board decided in 1997 to close the facility.

The decommissioning of the plant was given final approval by the NRC last week. That releases most of the land for redevelopment but not 12 acres where radioactive fuel rods are stored. The rods must be stored on-site because the federal government has yet to open a repository for nuclear waste although the country’s electricity customers have paid billions of dollars for such a facility. A repository was supposed to be open by 1998. Plagued by legal challenges and technical problems, a storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev., which was picked by Congress in 2002 as the place to bury 77,000 tons of radioactive material, is projected to open in 2012.

In the meantime, the country’s most radioactive nuclear waste will remain stored at sites in 39 states, including the waterfront parcel in Wiscasset, which would be better suited to development or a park rather than an off-limits waste dump.

With nuclear waste disposal moving at such a slow place, it may be time to reconsider a ban on reprocessing nuclear waste, something that is routinely done in Europe and Japan.

A second lesson from Maine Yankee is that sharing as much information as possible with the public makes for better operations and less fear among nearby residents. Maine Yankee established a community advisory panel (CAP) before beginning its decommissioning.

The panel, which included local scientists, government and business representatives and an outspoken opponent of the plant, helped keep local residents informed. A major benefit of the CAP, according to a company hired to evaluate the Maine Yankee decommissioning process, was that senior plant managers routinely made presentations before the public and were expected to answer questions in a manner understandable to lay members of the public.

Having such a committee in place when a plant was operational would go a long way toward easing public fears about nuclear power.

The United States needs sources of electricity other than high-priced oil, limited natural gas and highly polluting coal. Solar and wind may help, but nuclear energy is the only existing source for large quantities of electricity. Waste and safety hurdles must be cleared before the nuclear power industry grows.