By David Sharp,Associated Press Writer

WISCASSET – Last month’s deluge of rain that soaked communities and caused rivers to spill their banks transformed the former Maine Yankee nuclear power plant site into a muddy mess, pushing back the decommissioning timetable.

Physical work, already delayed, was supposed to be completed in April. Now workers are looking to complete the task by late May or early June.

“It has been a real quagmire,” said Eric Howes, Maine Yankee spokesman.

Every time it rained, water filled massive holes that once comprised the foundation of the containment building and other structures.

The water had to be pumped out, and all of that moisture added to the weight, and therefore the cost, of shipping contaminated soil to a low-level radioactive waste repository in Utah. Progress on the final surveys for radiation slowed, as well.

The rain cost the project $3 million to $4 million, said Bill Henries, project manager. “We had so much blinking rain,” he said. “It was amazing.”

Across Maine, many communities recorded double the average rainfall last month. Portland recorded 8.3 inches, the third wettest in 135 years, and Bangor received 6.19 inches. Caribou set a record for the month with 6.9 inches.

All of that rain followed a winter in which more than 100 inches of snow fell. The snow, bitter cold and wet spring all contributed to troubles for workers in charge of removing contaminated rubble and cleaning up the 179-acre site of the pressurized reactor that went into operation in 1972. Maine Yankee’s board voted to close the plant permanently in August 1997, 11 years before the expiration of its license.

All of that snow and rain created a mud season to remember. Workers have trucked in tons of sand and dirt to make up for the contaminated soil that was removed. Then came the rain that transformed holes where buildings once stood into ponds.

Once, workers pumped 160,000 gallons of water in a 24-hour period, Henries said. The water went into holding tanks for testing; it was dumped back into the Sheepscot River once it was determined that it met federal regulations, he said.

Because of the high moisture content, 48 rail cars containing soil had to be returned to Wiscasset because Envirocare, the landfill operator in Clive, Utah, voiced concerns about previous shipments that leaked water.

Overly saturated soil can leach low-level radioactive contamination into groundwater, so workers in Wiscasset will make sure the soil from the rail cars is dry before it’s repacked and reshipped to the landfill in Utah.

A tour of the Wiscasset site late last week gives an inkling of things to come. A visitor can now walk across the land where once stood the 150-foot containment dome, which was brought down by explosives last September.

Nine to 10 acres of land will be seeded next week, and the remaining 9 or 10 acres will be seeded around the end of May, Henries said.

All that remains are two power substations and a 60-foot transmission tower left because it’s home to an osprey nest, as well as a security building and a nine-acre storage facility for the highly radioactive spent fuel.

The spent fuel is stored in 60 large containers made of steel and concrete that are protected by two fences topped with barbed wire, electronic monitoring and an earthen berm, in addition to armed guards.

The cost of storing the fuel in Wiscasset indefinitely until the federal government follows through with its promise to build a repository for the highly radioactive waste is expected to be $7 million a year, Howes said.

Meanwhile, final site surveys to ensure compliance with radioactive waste standards are nearly completed: only 2.5 acres remain.

Maine Yankee is being held to a higher standard for the cleanup than what’s required by Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards.

But not everyone is satisfied.

Nuclear critic Ray Shadis said some underground “hot spots” are 50 to 100 times the level of naturally occurring radioactivity, yet the plan is for the land to eventually be released without restrictions on its future use.

“If you have kids playing in the dirt in that intensely radioactive area, and they can inhale it or eat it, I say that’s not good enough,” he said.

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Maine Yankee www.maineyankee.com

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