Waterford - An informational forum on plans to expand the dry cask storage capacity for nuclear waste at the Millstone Power Station will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 15, at Waterford Town Hall.

The session, hosted by the towns of East Lyme and Waterford, will begin with a presention on the plan by officials of Dominion, the owner of the Millstone nuclear power plants. A question-and-answer session will follow.

Dominion officials plan to submit an application to the Connecticut Siting Council for permission to expand the dry cask storage capacity at the 520-acre site. At present, 18 of 19 dry casks are filled with spent fuel from Units 2 and 3. Spent fuel from Unit 1 currently is kept in deep-water pools at the plant but would be moved into dry casks once the expanded facility is available.

Ken Holt, spokesman for Millstone, said the company plans to submit the application to the Siting Council by the end of this month or early September. The process began, he said, when Millstone officials met with Waterford and East Lyme officials this summer about their plans. The two towns have 60 days from that meeting to review and comment to Millstone on the plans. Wednesday's meeting is in part intended to give members of the public a chance to air questions and concerns they would like the towns to consider in any comments they submit, Holt said.

The towns and members of the public will have another chance to comment on the plan at the public hearing the Siting Council will schedule once the application has been submitted, said Linda Roberts, spokeswoman for the agency.

The company already has permission from the siting council to build an additional 30 concrete-and-steel dry cask chambers, but it has determined that it would be easier to construct all the dry cask units it will need for all three plants at the site at once rather than incrementally. It is seeking to build the infrastructure for 135 casks, enough to hold all the spent fuel from all three plants at the site through decommissioning of Unit 3, the newest, in 2045.

j.benson@theday.com