Under a federal judge's ruling, the Maine Yankee Atomic Electric Company in Wiscasset will get $34.4 million from the federal government as reimbursement for storing 530 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel on the site of its nuclear power plant, which closed in 1996.Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes says the federal government has to pay the bills to store the fuel because it's obliged under its contracts with plant owners all over the country to deal with it - and it's never met that obligation.
"Maine Yankee has been in litigation with the Department of Energy since 1998 to recover costs of storing this material," Howes says, "because the federal government was supposed to begin removing it in 1998, over 20 years ago."
When Maine Yankee was open during the '70s, '80s and '90s, customers paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund, to cover the costs of storing spent fuel -- but that money hasn't been allocated by Congress.
Howe says plants that have closed, but are still storing spent fuel, have to periodically sue the federal government to recoup expenses. "We expect to litigate with the Department of Energy every several years to recover costs that the company has incurred to store this fuel and operate Maine Yankee as a business."
State energy regulators and Maine Yankee will decide how to use the money.
Maine Yankee and two other Yankee sites in Massachusetts and Connecticut will get a total of about $103.2 million.