This from 2021. And yes, it's still sitting there. The alternatives? Desecrating #YuccaMountain? Polluting the #GreatLakes? Or maybe burying it underneath Congress? But until we figure out how to transport and permanently store nuclear waste, it is being stored on site. And not just in #Maine -- everywhere there was a #NuclearPowerPlant!
Armed Guards Protect Tons Of #NuclearWaste That Maine Can’t Get Rid Of
By Abigail Curtis, BDN
Published July 19, 2021
"In the summertime, the picturesque village of #WiscassetME is infamous for its long lines of people hungry to try a lobster roll at Red’s Eats and cars that crawl through town on the often-clogged #USRouteOne.
"But just a few miles south of downtown is a different kind of roadblock: 550 metric tons of nuclear waste stored on a coastal peninsula at the now-decommissioned #MaineYankee atomic energy plant that have nowhere to go.
"The change in presidential administrations means another chance for the federal government to make good on its promise to remove the waste, so the site can be closed for good. The Biden administration’s Department of Energy seems to be picking up where the Obama administration left off, creating a process for communities to volunteer to host the waste.
" 'What worries me is that there really isn’t any national leadership right now on this stuff. There isn’t an agency that has a mission and has developed a strategy, that has goals and is willing to act on it,' Don Hudson, the chairman of the Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel, said. 'We’re currently in this limbo.'
"That’s a problem because the waste — 1,400 spent nuclear fuel rods housed in 60 cement and steel canisters, plus four canisters of irradiated steel removed from the nuclear reactor when it was taken down — is safe for now, but can’t stay in Wiscasset forever.
"The situation in Wiscasset underscores a thorny issue facing more than 100 communities across the U.S.: close to a hundred thousand tons of nuclear waste that has no place to go.
"Securing these remnants of nuclear energy generation is an ongoing task that requires armed guards around the clock and costs Maine Yankee’s owners some $10 million per year, which is being paid for with money from the government.
"After the government failed to remove the spent fuel, Maine Yankee and the other two decommissioned nuclear power plants in New England — Connecticut Yankee in East Hampton, Connecticut, and Yankee Atomic in Rowe, Massachusetts — took it to court. So far, they have been awarded a total of $575.5 million in damages during four rounds of litigation, money that has been paid out of the U.S. Judgment fund. A fifth round is happening now, and the lawsuits are likely to continue until the fuel is removed.
"All told, the country’s many abandoned nuclear facilities — including Maine Yankee — have cost the federal government billions of dollars, a sum that increases by about $2 million each day, according to Eric Howes, the spokesperson for Maine Yankee and two other decommissioned plants in New England.
" 'All the #taxpayers in the United States are paying for the government’s failure to meet its obligations,' he said.
"But as the years pass, it seems that fewer and fewer people even realize that there are tons of nuclear waste on the secured site behind a chain-link fence on Bailey Point. Hudson and others worry that for many, it’s too easy not to think about it, diminishing the drive to find a better solution.
" 'Nobody ever travels by it. Nobody ever sees it,' Hudson said. 'It’s the classic out of sight, out of mind.' "
https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2021-07-19/armed-guards-protect-tons-of-nuclear-waste-that-maine-cant-get-rid-of
#nuclear #nuclearwaste #WaterIsLife #OceansAreLife #NoNukes #NoNewNukes #NuclearWaste #RethinkNotRestart
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