Yankee, Yes

Maine keeps nuclear power

WELCOME TO WISCASSET, THE PRETTIEST LITTLE VILLAGE IN MAINE. So reads the sign on U.S. 1 outside the coastal community (pop. 2,244) with its neat houses and manicured lawns. Across Sheepscot Bay, on Bailey Point, is a more modern symbol of Maine: the gray concrete dome of the 830-megawatt Maine Yankee nuclear power plant, which for eight years has provided 30% of the state's electricity. The facility last week was the subject of the first referendum in the U.S. on whether an operating nuclear power plant should be shut down.

The vote grew out of the accident last year at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Even though Maine Yankee has a good safety record, nearby residents began to worry lest even a minor accident devastate the seacoast's $175 million-a-year tourist and fishing industries. Said former Congressman Stanley Tupper of nearby Boothbay Harbor: "There are 100,000 tourists here every summer. The only way to get all of them out would be by sea, and we could only do that if the Navy happened to have some ships in the vicinity." Led by Sculptor Raymond Shadis and his wife Pat, residents collected more than 55,000 signatures demanding the referendum.

Supporters of the plant included Democratic Governor Joseph Brennan, the state's Republican committee and Maine industries like Bath Iron Works, the state's largest employer. They argued that if customers were forced to do without the plant's nuclear power, which costs 1.5-c- per kWh, they would have to buy electricity from out-of-state utilities that burn expensive imported oil at an estimated cost of 6-c- per kWh. The total cost to consumers, claimed John Menario, head of the Save Maine Yankee Committee, would be $140 million a year. Opponents disputed the figures and argued that the loss of Maine Yankee could eventually be made up by conservation and power from solar generators and small hydroelectric projects.

In the war of bumper stickers and TV commercials, Menario's committee raised nearly a million dollars, outspending the plant's opponents by 5 to 1. Most of the supporters' funds came from out-of-state corporations, including utilities, manufacturers and even investment banking firms, which feared that a shutdown in Maine would cause a nationwide antinuclear ripple. On election day, more than half of Maine's voters went to the polls--a record for a single-issue referendum in the state--and voted by 230,000 to 160,000 to keep Maine Yankee open.

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