WISCASSET (AP) – A two-year dispute between Maine Yankee and the town of Wiscasset over how to assess the former Maine Yankee nuclear power plant’s property has been settled.

The disagreement focused on how to assign property value for tax purposes to Maine Yankee’s spent nuclear fuel site. The state’s only nuclear plant ceased operations in 1997, and the land at issue houses more than 600 tons of spent fuel rods kept in steel and concrete casks.

Representatives of the plant took issue with the town’s assessment of $212 million, and claimed the value of the land was closer to $4.3 million.

Terms of the agreement say the town will receive a total of $19.8 million over 20 years, including an immediate payment $2.8 million to cover taxes owed and not paid for 2003 and 2004. Annual payments over time will decline.

Adjusted to today’s dollars, the total payments over the 20-year term amount to $15.3 million. The cost of litigation over the assessment was one motivation to working out an agreement.

“This is the first decommissioned nuclear plant in the country to be assessed in this manner,” said Wiscasset legal counsel Peter Murray.

Michael Thomas, vice president and chief financial officer of Maine Yankee, said the agreement represents “tremendous progress” over the original dealings between the two parties.

“This agreement helps both sides,” Thomas said. “It’s beneficial to the electric rate payers, and it eliminates the cost of further litigation.”

Maine Yankee values its relationship with the town of Wiscasset and hopes it moves forward.”

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Information from: The Times Record, http://www.timesrecord.com

AP-ES-04-07-05 1419EDT