Shouldn't Wiscasset get a slice of the multi-million-dollar court award Maine Yankee has coming in connection with the spent fuel still in town?

Wiscasset Budget Committee member Bill Barnes thinks so.

“If we've got a dump, I think the town of Wiscasset should deserve some of that money,” he told selectmen December 3.

Barnes said Maine Yankee took some of his land when the nuclear plant was built. Someone from the plant told him at the time, he'd never have to worry about the cost of property taxes because the plant would stay open, Barnes said.

The spent fuel from the now closed plant sits in above-ground casks on the Bailey Point peninsula; the United States Department of Energy has yet to decide where it will put that waste and the spent fuel from other nuclear plants.

A federal judge recently awarded Maine Yankee $35.7 million in damages for storing the spent fuel from 2003 to 2008. Earlier this year, the federal government reimbursed Maine Yankee for storing the waste from 1998 to 2002.

Maine Yankee has now filed claims seeking money for the fuel still being on-site in the years 2009 to 2012.

In response to Barnes' question during the public comment part of Tuesday's selectmen's meeting, Selectmen's Chairman Ed Polewarczyk explained that Maine Yankee's reimbursement money is supposed to provide relief in rates paid by Central Maine Power customers.

In the next three years, a total of about $74 million from the first award is expected to go to CMP and Maine Yankee's other eight owners, Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes has said.