BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 30, 2021
The Biden administration is restarting the process of finding a temporary home for the spent nuclear fuel stranded at sites around the country, including at the decommissioned Maine Yankee site in Wiscasset. Ultimately, the government is seeking locales that are willing to volunteer to take in the nuclear waste until a permanent storage facility can be created. Currently, although it is the federal government’s obligation to create a permanent facility for nuclear waste disposal, it’s been left up to nuclear facilities around the country to figure out temporary storage. There are more than 100 communities in the U.S. serving as often-reluctant hosts to nearly 100,000 tons of nuclear waste that has no other place to go. In Maine, securing the 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.