Feb 07 - Patriot Ledger, The; Quincy, Mass.

 

Charging nuclear power plants for on-site storage of spent fuel may be unusual, but it is not unprecedented.

State Sen. Therese Murray and state Reps. Vinny deMacedo and Thomas O'Brien have filed a bill that would allow Plymouth to charge Entergy Corp. a special assessment for storage of spent fuel rods at the plant. They say the waste is a public safety hazard, particularly in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Even before those attacks, concern about increasing spent-fuel storage at Minnesota's Prairie Island nuclear power plant prompted Minnesota legislators to negotiate a special tax on spent-fuel storage.

In 1994, the Prairie Island plant was running out of space for fuel storage and applied to the state's utility commission for permission to create a dry-cask storage facility, according to James Alders, regional manager for Xcel Energy, the plant owner.

Alders said the storage expansion proposal was very controversial. In a deal negotiated with legislators, Xcel agreed to accept a state assessment of $500,000 per cask.

The deal was later changed to call for a flat fee of $16 million, but it also includes payments toward the development of renewable energy projects such as wind farms, Alders said.

A second waste-storage expansion was approved in 2003 to allow the Prairie Island plant to keep operating through 2014, when the its license expires.

The second agreement doubled Xcel's contribution toward the development of renewable energy industries.

The Prairie Island plant is on the Mississippi River near Red Wing, 50 miles outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul. It provides 20 percent of the state's electricity and supplies power to neighboring states as well.

As Entergy moves forward with its application for a new operating license for Pilgrim, town officials are looking for ways to boost revenues and offset the hazards of hosting a nuclear storage facility.

If approved, Plymouth's spent-fuel assessment would be based on the tonnage of fuel at the plant, with a minimum assessment of $2 million.

Duxbury officials say any money Plymouth collects should be shared with neighboring towns also at risk because of spent-fuel storage.

Tamara Race may be reached at trace@ledger.com.