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Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant was a nuclear power plant built on Bailey Peninsula of Wiscasset, Maine.
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The Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company formed in 1966, when plans for a pressurized water reactor in Wiscasset, Maine were made. The four-year $231 million construction of the plant began in 1968 and ended in 1972 when commercial operation of the plant began. Originally, Maine Yankee Power Co. had a 40 year license to run the plant.
Over its 25 years as Maine's sole operating nuclear power plant, the power station produced much of Maine's power. Maine Yankee's most productive year came in 1989 when it produced reached 6,900 gigawatt-hours of electricity. From 1972 through 1996 the 900 megawatt reactor produced about 119,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity. [1]
During the 1980s, when nuclear opposition was fueled by the near miss at Three Mile Island, several attempts at closing the plant were defeated. Referendums in years 1980, 1982 and 1987 all failed despite heavy opposition.
In 1994, cracks in the plant's steam generator's tubes were discovered. Action was taken and the plant was temporarily closed in 1995 to make repairs addressing the problem. The plant was re-opened later that year until 1996 when it again was closed.
In 1997, companies with ownership rights in Maine Yankee came to the decision that the plant could never again be operated at a profit due the passage of Maine's electric restructuring act in May of 1997. With cheaper electricity flowing across the Maine border and without the benefit of monopoly status, the plant was no longer economically viable. The planning process for the site's decommissioning began shortly after the official closure.
The eight-year $500 million decommissioning process spanned from 1997 until 2005. In 2000, the first structures were gutted out by workers. In 2003, the reactor section of the station was shipped to a secure location in South Carolina via a barge. Finally, in 2004, the facility's containment building was brought down by explosives. In 2005, dangerous radioactive material was still consistently being removed. The process is to end later in 2005 when the final radioactive soil is removed and grass is planted over the area.
Today, the 800 acres (3.2 km²) of land that consists of Maine Yankee's former area is in the final stages of restoration. Future use of the site could include municipal or commercial use. However, the 1,400 spent fuel rods that are locked away on site must be disposed of, a process that looks more than 20 years away due to political problems at the proposed Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada. Until such problems are cleared up, the Maine Yankee site's future is still in question.