Baldacci opposes N-waste storage proposal

AUGUSTA – Gov. John Baldacci on Tuesday objected to a proposal moving through the U.S. Senate that could create temporary radioactive waste storage areas. Critics fear the Maine Yankee site could be targeted.

The proposal addresses the growing volume of used reactor fuel at power plants by calling for the government to store civilian nuclear waste for up to 25 years at federal sites across the country.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., included the provision in a $30.7 billion spending bill that advanced out of his appropriations subcommittee.

In a letter to Domenici, Baldacci said Monday that creating temporary storage sites could lead to further delays in a proposed dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the designated federal storage site that was supposed to open in 1998.

As drafted, Domenici’s proposal would put high-level radioactive waste in storage facilities “never designed, intended or evaluated for this purpose,” Baldacci said. Instead, the government should move forward with a national radwaste repository in Yucca Mountain.

Furthermore, there are security issues, Baldacci pointed out.

“The security concerns of Americans are not well-served by having thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste left in facilities in 31 states, including Maine,” Baldacci wrote.

With completion of the Yucca Mountain storage site delayed, Domenici’s provision allows the U.S. energy secretary to take title to closed plants such as Maine Yankee and take responsibility for the storage of high-level nuclear waste until it can be moved.

Another provision calls on the energy secretary to designate a consolidation site for waste within any state with a reactor for 25 years.

Currently there are more than 50,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste in the form of spent reactor fuel rods at nuclear power plants in 31 states.

The site of the former Maine Yankee atomic power plant in Wiscasset holds 600 metric tons of nuclear waste sealed in 64 concrete and steel casks that are designed to last for decades.

Once the national repository opens, the casks will be loaded onto rail cars for shipment to the permanent storage location.