Save the FFTF

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

RADSAFERs:


A dear friend sent me the message below.  Please help us save the FFTF.  It is a prime research facility as well as a medical isotope source.  Please go to the website indicated and register your protest against the shutdown.


We have been pushing to get our federal agencies to do the right 

thing for all of us and to restart the Fast Flux Test Facility.  Our amazing, 

beautifully performing advanced reactor is badly needed to produce isotopes 

for patients with cancer or other deadly diseases, for advanced educational 

opportunities, and for space applications. We've won several battles, but are 

losing the war. A quick recap:


.  The Department of Energy said ten years ago that there was no "mission" 

for FFTF, and they would shut it down.

.  Local companies devised a plan to operate the reactor.   DOE agreed to 

keep it in stanby and investigate, but ultimately rejected the plan.

.  Arguments to DOE made the point that shutdown was not permissible without 

an Environmental Impact Statement reviewing the national need for isotopes.

.  EIS findings showed that the Facility was needed to meet any growth in 

demand (which was already occurring), but a Record of Decision was issued for 

shutdown.  Again.  

.  Virtually all technical experts agree that another facility will have to 

be built in the US almost immediately to do what, at this time, only FFTF can 

do.  The cost to taxpayers will be between 2 and 9 BILLION dollars, depending 

on what type of facility is built and which congressional district "wins the 

lottery".

.  Our local County, City, and Port district put together a consortium to ask 

DOE for rights to operate this "unneeded" property.  This includes major 

international corporations, but would also require the agreement of the 

federal government.  And time.

.  DOE has now transferred the money and the administration of FFTF from 

their Nuclear Energy division to their Environmental Management (cleanup) 

division, has sent in their wrecking managers and publicly announced that 

they have started the destruction of the plant.  


All this makes FFTF a subject for the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) [DOE, EPA and 

the Washington State Department of Ecology] which oversees all cleanujp 

activities.  The TPA was formed to keep tabs on how quickly radioactivity 

from old defense reactors would be cleaned up.  Now FFTF is being lumped in 

with the lot. To do so requires a change in the Tri-Party Agreement, and that 

in turn requires public hearing and comment.  We have until October 14 to 

either attend one of the hearings or write to protest this "TPA change 

package" which expedites the destruction of the reactor at the same time a 

highly viable plan to use it for benefit of humanity is still being 

developed.  


This doesn't take long.  Please go to 

www.fftf.info and click on the "do this first" flashing button.  If you 

need or want more information, or are willing to do more, let me know.  This 

is our last chance to save the plant.....the expedited schedule would have 

the new management draining sodium within the next six weeks.  Then the 

contractor gets a bonus at the end of the fiscal year.  Great.


The ONLY thing wrong with FFTF is that it's at Hanford.


Thanks for helping.





Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com