Why Are Armed Guards Still Protecting Tons Of Nuclear Waste In Wiscasset?

When I was a kid, I grew up on the very tail-end of the Cold War. So whenever I heard about anything to do with the word "nuclear", I always assumed the worst. I assumed there was something downright evil about a nuclear power plant. Especially after the 3 Mile Island incident in the late 70's.

Maine joins the nuclear age.

Maine Yankee powered up back in 1972, when nuclear power was at its zenith. At the time, according to the BDN, there well over 100 nuclear power plants around the country. But after 1979, when the 3 Mile Island incident occurred, a lot of states began to wonder if it was safe.

Then Chernobyl in 1986 pretty much sealed the deal. 10 years after that, Maine joined the growing trend and took Maine Yankee offline in 1996. But... there was a lot fo waste left over, and nowhere to put it. That created a problem in many states, prompting the federal government to step in and claim they'd deal with it.

Fast forward nearly 40 years....

After all this time, and several presidential administrations, nothing ahs really been done. The waste in many states was supposed to be moved to a remote location on government property, but go figure, no one in Nevada wanted a nuclear waste dump in their back yard.

All this controversy, Wiscasset is still sitting on a huge pile of nuclear waste that is protected round-the-clock by armed guards. And a lot of Mainers don't even know it's there. So because the government is stalling, we basically have our own nuclear waste dump right here in the Pine Tree state.

Will anything ever be done about it?

Good question. The way it's looking now, there is no endgame to this situation we're in. No help from the government on a federal level, the state likely just pointing fingers at the feds, and a huge pile of nuclear waste getting older by the minute. The only thing everyone agrees on, is that it has to go.

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