FFTF not dead yet ...

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@AECL.CA>]

> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010425/us/hanford_nuclear_1.html

> 

> Wednesday April 25 8:45 PM ET

> Abraham Suspends Nuclear Shutdown 

> 

> RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites)

> has postponed for 90 days an end-of-term decision from the Clinton

> administration to permanently shut down an experimental nuclear reactor.

> 

> The three months will be used to review potential private sector interest

> in restarting the Fast Flux Test Facility, U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings (news -

> bio - voting record), R-Wash., said Tuesday.

> 

> ``It was an outrage that a final decision on FFTF was hastily reached in

> the last days of the Clinton administration without formally soliciting

> interest'' from third parties, Hastings said.

> 

> Though more than 20 years old, the FFTF is the Energy Department's newest

> reactor. It was designed to research advanced forms of nuclear fuel for

> so-called breeder reactors, which produce as much plutonium as they

> consume, and sometimes more.

> 

> The federal government scrapped its breeder reactor program in the 1980s

> after deciding it had misjudged the nation's electricity needs.

> 

> The 400-megawatt FFTF was placed on standby in 1992. The nuclear fuel was

> removed from the core, but the cooling system has been maintained to

> permit a possible restart.

> 

> Hastings has been urging Abraham to reconsider the shutdown decision.

> 

> Earlier this month, the DOE's Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee,

> an independent panel appointed to advise the agency on nuclear issues,

> called the FFTF an ``irreplaceable asset,'' and noted that the nation was

> quickly losing its ability to test and develop nuclear science and

> technology.

> 

> Some drug companies also have come forward to advance the idea of

> restarting FFTF, as have medical researchers.

> 

> But after a decade of debate, studies and public hearings, DOE finally

> decided late last year to deactivate FFTF. The order was issued in

> January, during the last week of President Clinton (news - web sites)'s

> second term in office. 

> 

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