WISCASSET (AP) – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday signed off on the decommissioning of the former Maine Yankee nuclear power plant, certifying that the cleanup of the 167-acre site exceeded federal radiation guidelines.

The project followed stricter cleanup standards than those mandated by the NRC and the Environmental Protection Agency. It also went further than past efforts in the United States by wiping away virtually all structures.

“We’re the first commercial nuclear power plant to fully decommission the plant, remove all buildings, and restore the property,” said spokesman Eric Howes.

The NRC last month signed off on Maine Yankee’s final radiological survey results.

On Monday, it released the land for unrestricted use when it amended Maine Yankee’s license, reducing the company’s footprint to a 12-acre storage facility where highly radioactive fuel rods will be stored indefinitely.

The NRC’s action formally ended the process of razing buildings, removing contaminated soil and rubble, and restoring the property.

It came little more than a year after the dramatic toppling of the 150-foot-containment dome with explosives on Sept. 17, 2004.

Today, seeded with grass, there’s little evidence that the waterfront property was once the site of a 900-megawatt nuclear power plant.

The decommissioning cost is expected to come in close to the $500 million budget despite the stricter cleanup standard and being months behind schedule, Howes said. A final tally was not available Monday, he said.

Maine Yankee officials expected to complete the decommissioning last February. But a harsh winter and wet spring pushed the date back. All told, about 310 million pounds of radiological material were removed during the eight-year process.

Nuclear critic Ray Shadis said he’s largely satisfied with the cleanup, but he’s disappointed that Maine Yankee chose to leave some pipes buried underground. Maine Yankee decided it didn’t make sense to remove the pipes that are 60 feet underground, so they were encased in concrete and left in place.

“At the end of it, you can’t say it’s a clean site. It may be relatively clean on the surface but you have buried in it this radioactive heart,” he said.

The NRC allows for an annual exposure of 25 millirems above normally occurring background radiation, while the EPA calls for a 15-millirem standard. Shadis and other community leaders successfully lobbied for a 10-millirem standard.

In the end, the cleanup exceeded even that standard because annual exposure to someone living on the site would be closer to 1 millirem per year, Howes said.

“Maine Yankee’s decommissioning broke new ground in many areas and will be studied as a success story for years to come,” said Gerald Poulin, Maine Yankee’s president.

The pressurized water reactor began operation in 1972 and survived three statewide referendums aimed at closing the plant in the 1980s.

It was shut down following operational problems that escalated after the discovery of cracked steam generator tubes in 1994. Problems continued to mount and the plant was placed on the NRC’s list of worst-run plants in January 1997.

Maine Yankee’s board voted to close the plant permanently in August 1997, 11 years before the plant’s license was set to expire.

All that remains are a security building and a storage facility where 64 canisters hold the former plant’s highly radioactive fuel rods and steel from the reactor vessel, along with two electric substations owned by Central Maine Power.

Those spent fuel assemblies will remain under tight security until the federal government follows through with its promise to build a repository for high-level radioactive waste. There is no timetable for when that will happen.

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