The Department of Energy (DOE) is legally responsible for permanently removing highly radioactive used fuel and high level radioactive waste from nuclear plant sites in the United States. They have failed to meet that obligation and now say it could be decades before they will remove (delete - the fuel) this material.

At the permanently shutdown Yankee Rowe nuclear plant in Western Massachusetts, the used fuel and the Greater Than Class C Radioactive Waste (GTCC waste) is stored in airtight, stainless steel shipping canisters placed inside steel-lined concrete casks. The fuel and GTCC waste will be stored on the Yankee Rowe site until it is removed by the DOE.

This storage system is a dual-purpose system that not only safely stores the fuel and GTCC waste in stainless steel canisters inside heavy steel-lined concrete structures, but also packages the fuel and GTCC waste for transport. The stainless steel fuel canisters are designed to be removed from the steel-lined concrete casks and placed inside a specially designed shipping container for transport to a federal facility such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada.