" FFTF Closure Likely "

["Michael Stabin" <michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu>]

Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 14:33:30 -0500

From: "Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@AECL.CA>

Subject: " FFTF Closure Likely "



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NUCLEONICS WEEK - November 8, 2001

ENERGY SECRETARY APPEARS LIKELY

TO GO AHEAD WITH FFTF CLOSURE

There wasn't much encouragement this week that Energy

Secretary Spencer Abraham would deviate from DOE's preferred

option of permanently closing the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) in

Washington state.

Abraham is expected to announce his decision this month.

He was scheduled to visit FFTF on Nov. 7. If the test reactor

were restarted, a consortium of companies would use it to

produce medical isotopes. The consortium would need NRC certification to

operate FFTF.

However, William Magwood, director of the DOE office

of nuclear energy, told the department's Nuclear Energy Research

Advisory Committee (Nerac) that medical isotope

production may not fall within Abraham's vision of the type

of work DOE should be doing. He said that during a recent

meeting with DOE senior staff, Abraham equated energy

security with national security. The secretary said DOE

should not be working on anything outside of those categories, Magwood said.

Magwood's comments came in response to questions by

Nerac members, who said during the two-day meeting that

FFTF could play a key role in a study of the transmutation of

actinides in utility spent nuclear fuel and in tests of advanced reactor

fuel.

Confronted with a similar question on a restart, DOE

Undersecretary Robert Card said, "FFTF is either a wart or a

crown jewel." But, Card added, if he had the choice of investing

DOE money in the restart of FFTF or the start of operations

of a new reactor, he would chose the new reactor.

"There would be more momentum from that," he explained.

The 400-MW (thermal) liquid-metal-cooled reactor

(LMR) was built in the 1970s to test equipment and mixed-oxide

fuel for LMRs and breeder reactors. However, the

breeder reactor project was canceled in 1983, a year after

FFTF began operations. The reactor was used to test advanced

fuels, materials, and safety designs before budget constraints

forced DOE to put it in standby mode in 1992. Former energy

secretary Hazel O'Leary said in 1993 it would be closed permanently.-

Elaine Hiruo, Washington