ROWE, Mass. (AP) – About 1,700 tons of spent nuclear fuel will remain on the site of the decommissioned Yankee Rowe power plant for the foreseeable future even though demolition of most of the structures are scheduled to be completed on schedule by the fall, company officials say.

The spent fuel will be kept on site under tight security while the controversy over a proposed federal nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., is resolved.

A 90-acre section of the 1,800-acre site in Rowe will remain the home of 16 “dry cask” storage units containing spent nuclear fuel, officials said at a meeting of the Yankee Rowe Community Advisory Board last week.

The casks contain 533 fuel assemblies – bundles of hollow steel rods that contain ceramic-coated pellets of highly refined uranium.

“There’s currently no other place to send the spent fuel,” said Kelley Smith, a spokeswoman for Yankee Atomic Electric Co. “It requires a national repository, and none exists currently.”

Yankee Rowe was shut down in 1992 after 31 years of operation.