MAINE’S NUCLEAR STAND

Maine and other states last week properly opposed continued federal attempts to identify dozens of long-term storage sites for spent nuclear fuel. Maine, under federal law, has paid billions of dollars over decades to help develop a single, secure repository for this waste, and Congress no longer has the confidence of state officials to do anything else.

Gov. John Baldacci has joined with 17 other governors in protesting a plan by Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico that would transfer some of the money to pay for local storage at what are supposed to be interim sites. It is encouraging that the federal government recognized the cost of storage, but what states want is the facility they were promised.

Sen. Domenici, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, proposed the interim sites because he was facing the unwelcome fact that the permanent facility at Yucca Mountain is not expected to be ready to accept waste until 2017 – 19 years late. Even then decades will be needed before all the waste is moved there, if there is room for it all. Meanwhile, the senator points out in a letter to governors, “The nation’s electric ratepayers and your constituents are paying twice – both for Yucca and for storing waste at reactor sites.”

Sen. Domenici’s proposal would be reasonable if governors had any reason to trust the federal government on this issue. Unfortunately, they do not. High-level nuclear waste storage has been marked by delay, cost overruns, obfuscation and more delay.

Last July, Gov. John Baldacci told Sen. Domenici, “I strongly believe your proposal creates a very high potential for indefinite delays in achieving a safe and permanent nuclear waste repository, and will feed a growing lack of confidence in government in general.”

Clearly, many other governors feel similarly. The proposal in the Senate might work under a better atmosphere than has been created through frustrating years of inaction. But now, when Congress says, “Trust us,” governors on this issue understandably are saying “No.”