HADDAM, Conn. (AP) The state attorney general has joined the town in opposing plans to store spent nuclear waste in casks at the site of the former Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant.

 Richard Blumenthal filed a friend of the court brief Monday to support the town in fighting a lawsuit from the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company.

 The town has refused to rezone a portion of land for use as a storage site, fearing it might eventually become a regional high-level radioactive waste dump.

 As a result, the company has filed a federal lawsuit against the town, claiming federal laws not local zoning laws should apply because the storage of nuclear waste is federally regulated.

 Blumenthal contends local zoning authorities derive their power from state laws and the company's lawsuit amounts to an attack on those laws.

 ''No nuclear facility can use federal law as a self-serving shield against valid local health and safety measures,'' said Blumenthal. ''Local communities, not federal bureaucrats, should determine how their land is used.''

 No hearing date has been scheduled in the case.