The Citizen Advisory Group, set up to give advice to the Maine Low-Level Radioactive Waste Authority about how to pick a disposal site for radioactive waste, Thursday called for separate meetings with Maine’s legislative leaders and with the top management at Maine Yankee.

The reasons:

A sense that legislative leaders don’t fully understand the process that the CAG and the authority are going through to identify the most appropriate site for a disposal facility.

A feeling that the management of Maine Yankee disagrees with the process because of fears that the results will be the disqualification of the power plant as a potential disposal site.

Larry Susskind, a consultant hired by the authority to lead and referee the discussions of the huge advisory group, proposed a meeting with top management of Maine Yankee because a recent article in the Maine Times made it clear that political efforts are under way to get Maine Yankee considered as a prime site for disposal.

“How about the leadership of the Legislature as well,” said Maria Holt, a Democratic representative from Bath and a member of the CAG.

The politicking about a future disposal site is going on while the CAG has been studying and debating scientific information on site selection. The CAG was set up to involve the producers, environmental groups, interested members of the public and even opponents of nuclear power in discussions about disposing of radioactive waste.

Susskind suggested that the question he would like to ask top officials from Maine Yankee is what they have against the criteria that have been developed to screen potential sites and what better criteria could they could suggest.

Robert Dunning of Citizens Against Nuclear Trash and a CAG member commented that Maine Yankee’s representatives on the CAG had said several months ago that “they would be more forthright.”

“Since then, they haven’t come,” Susskind said.

“For me, Maine Yankee is just another spot on the ground,” said Bruce Clary of the University of Southern Maine’s public policy program and a CAG member.

Maine Yankee officials don’t want the plant to be just another spot on the ground. They have lobbied lawmakers to gain consideration as a site without regard to such criteria as geology.