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Radioactive Waste

State Nuclear Safety Advisor

Charles Pray

Charles Pray

Charles Pray

The Honorable Charles P. Pray was named State Nuclear Safety Advisor in late October of 2003 by Governor John E. Baldacci, D-ME. The Nuclear Safety Advisor advises the Governor and the Legislature on issues pertaining to the safe storage and potential transportation of nuclear waste. Consults with other agencies of State and Federal Government whose activities pertaining to the Maine Yankee storage facility and related operations. reviews, evaluates and advises the Governor and the Legislature on activities conducted by other states. The Advisor has the authority to inspect and monitor the safe operation of the storage and transportation of nuclear waste; and is directed to prepare a report of the office's activities each year to the Governor and the Legislature.

The Advisor oversaw the decommissioning and dismantlement of Maine’s lone nuclear power plant, Maine Yankee, and currently oversees the storage of the spent nuclear fuel at the Wiscasset site. He is active in advocating the federal government meet its responsibility in taking possession of the spent nuclear fuel and transferring it to a national repository as required by federal law. Pray serves on the Northeast High-level Radioactive Waste Transportation Task Force, comprising of the ten northeastern States’ Council of State Governments organization selecting transportation routes to the designated repository. He also co-chairs a national task force supporting the national repository designated by Congress site in Nye County, Nevada. Pray is active in the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, an organization representing twenty-five States with growing inventories of radioactive waste due to federal failures to develop the national repository.

Pray, a former State Senator, 1975 – 1992, served fourteen of his eighteen years in leadership positions, including Asst. Minority Leader, Majority Leader, and was Senate President from 1984 through 1992. Pray served eight years at the U.S. Department of Energy as a Special Assistant in a Senior Executive Service position as an advisor to several Assistant Secretaries in the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, which included addressing the acceptance of U.S. Origin Foreign Spent Nuclear Fuels, U.S. Naval Spent fuels and the development of the national repository for commercial nuclear waste. Pray is a Vietnam veteran and a graduate of the University of Maine with a degree in Political Science.

Charles can be reached at 207-287-8936, or Charles.Pray@Maine.gov