The Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel (CAP) voted unanimously to extend its charter by two years during their annual meeting on the Chewonki Foundation campus, Sept. 1 as they discussed the upcoming Blue Ribbon Commission public meeting set for Oct. 12 in Boston.
Established in 1997 shortly after the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant was decommissioned, the CAP has met regularly over the past 14 years. With the plant now dismantled, the committee’s only remaining task is to see the site’s spent nuclear fuel safely removed.
“We need to make sure people inside and outside the State of Maine know that we have an unfinished project here,” CAP Vice Chair Don Hudson said. Hudson was reelected along with CAP Chair Marge Kilkelly to head the committee.
The vote was followed by a site update from Maine Yankee Vice President and Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) Manager Jim Connell, who notified the panel that despite Tropical Storm Irene and the recent earthquake that struck the eastern seaboard this summer, the area remained safe to the public.
Connell assured the CAP that the earthquake did not harm the ISFSI. The tropical storm, he said, caused an estimated 12-hour power outage, but that the backup power from a diesel generator kept the site fully functional. The storm also caused a minor washout of a culvert.
According to a written report given by Connell to the CAP, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspected the ISFSI on Dec. 1, 2010. The inspection focused on radiation protection, environmental monitoring, training, emergency planning, and fire protection.
Posted on the Maine Yankee website, the NRC Inspection Reports were “positive”, according to Connell.
“There are no safety or security gaps at any ISFSIs,” Connell said.
Most of the meeting, however, was spent reviewing and preparing a response to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future’s (BRC) draft July 29 report addressing shutdown reactor sites. The BRC will be receiving public comments on the draft report in Boston on Mon. Oct. 12.
The BRC was created in 2009 after President Obama ended a proposed plan to open a national repository for spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
The July 29 draft report advocates sending spent fuel from shutdown reactor sites to “consolidated interim storage facilities,” regardless of whether a permanent repository, such as Yucca Mountain, is ever opened.
“[The] Department of Energy should begin laying the groundwork for implementing consolidated storage and for improving the overall integration of storage as a planned part of the waste management system without further delay,” the draft report reads.
The draft report notes that financial reasons are a compelling reason to send spent fuel to interim storage facilities.
“The continued presence of spent fuel at shutdown reactor sites is problematic and costly,” the draft report states.
The presence of ISFSIs not only prevents the affected area from being reclaimed for economic development, but also requires that the site be guarded and maintained like a nuclear power plant without any of the benefits, the report says.
The report finds that the cost of operating and maintaining an ISFSI can range from $4.5 to $8 million per year.
The report recommends that “stranded” spent fuel from shutdown nuclear plant sites be the first to be transferred. The Maine Yankee ISFSI would fall under this category.
“Spent fuel currently being stored at shutdown reactor sites should be ‘first in line’ for transfer to consolidated interim storage,” according to the report.
“The magnitude of the cost savings that could be achieved by giving priority to shutdown sites appears to be large enough (i.e. in the billions of dollars) to warrant DOE exercising its right…to move this fuel first,” the report states.
Though the Maine Yankee ISFSI would be one of the first facilities to see its spent fuel transferred, such a move would far in the future.
“We’re looking at a long time frame for moving the waste,” said Cort Richardson. Richardson, Director of the Northeast High-Level Radioactive Waste Transportation Project under the Council of State Governments Eastern Regional Conference was there to inform the CAP about the upcoming Oct. 12 meeting.
The Council of State Governments is co-sponsoring the all day public meeting with the BRC.
Panel member Wayne Norton agreed.
“We need to realize that short term actions will take years,” he said.
Hudson said that it could take 10 years before the fuel is removed.
“Even if it takes seven years it’s progress,” said Kilkelly.
Despite the time frame, the CAP supported the conclusions reached in the draft report. The most debated question, however, was how the panel could support the conclusions and make sure they are implemented.
Norton warned that the BRC won’t be responsible for implementing the plan, and that the program could lose traction after the report is published.
“We need to be on point with this,” Norton said.
Along with agreeing to support the BRC’s draft report, the CAP said it would advocate a new consent-based approach to creating future nuclear waste storage facilities. It also said it would be supportive of near term actions that would see the removal of spent nuclear fuel at the Maine Yankee ISFSI.
Public comments on the draft report are due by Oct. 31 The final report is due to President Obama and Congress on Jan. 29, 2012.