Four miles from a picturesque New England village that bills itself as the prettiest in Maine stands a hulking, nuclear powerplant whose days are finally numbered. The 900-Mw Maine Yankee plant and the town of Wiscasset may seem an unlikely pair, but their fortunes have been linked for more than three decades. Now, as shuttered Maine Yankee is taken apart piece by piece, its legacy will be an environmental and economic bounty for Wiscasset. Located on a spit of land that juts into Montsweag Bay, Maine Yankee's huge containment dome and assorted support buildings sit on just 40 acres of a total 820-acre site. In its heyday in the 1970s, the plant was pulling 440,000 gal per minute from the Back River to cool its pressurized water reactor. Owned by a consortium of nine principal New England power providers, Maine Yankee once supplied 25% of the state's electricity, with enough left over to export regionally. At its peak, the plant made up 90% of Wiscasset's tax base and employed more than 450 people.
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