Maine Yankee: Making the Transition from an Operating Plant to an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI)

The purpose of this paper is to describe the challenges faced by Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company in making the transition from an operating nuclear power plant to an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). Maine Yankee (MY) is a 900-megawatt Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor whose architect engineer was Stone & Webster. Maine Yankee was put into commercial operation on December 28, 1972. It is located on an 820-acre site, on the shores of the Back River in Wiscasset, Maine about 40 miles northeast of Portland, Maine. During its operating life, it generated about 1.2 billion kilowatts of power, providing 25% of Maine's electric power needs and serving additional customers in New England. Maine Yankee's lifetime capacity factor was about 67% and it employed more than 450 people. The decision was made to shutdown Maine Yankee in August of 1997, based on economic reasons. Once this decision was made planning began on how to accomplish safe and cost effective decommissioning of the plant by 2004 while being responsive to the community and employees