NUCLEONICS WEEK - November 14, 2002
FFTF DECOMMISSIONING WORK HALTED
TEMPORARILY AS DOE FACES LAWSUIT
DOE agreed Nov. 8 to stop all planned decommissioning
work at the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) in Hanford, Wash.
for a two-week period after Benton County filed a temporary
restraining order and complaint to reverse the shutdown decision.
DOE was to have begun draining sodium coolant from the
reactor on Nov. 11, an action that Benton County Commissioner
Claude Oliver said would "irreversibly damage" the
facility. He said DOE agreed to a brief moratorium of work,
which was "about the best that a judge would have given us."
The county's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Washington in Richland, Wash., argued
that DOE did not adequately address environmental issues
required under the National Environmental Policy Act and
failed to analyze privatizing operations of the FFTF. A schedule
for the legal proceedings is expected to be out shortly.
DOE issued a record of decision in January 2001 to permanently
shut the breeder reactor, which has been in a stand-by
mode since 1992. Benton County, Wash. officials have
been lobbying since then to save the reactor for medical isotope production.
Supporters of the FFTF say they are hoping to keep DOE
from starting decommissioning and dismantling work until
next year, when they believe there is a better chance for reviving
the reactor's operations. Oliver, who is also president of
the group Citizens for Medical Isotopes, which is trying to
save the reactor, said the new political landscape of having
both Republican-controlled executive and legislative branches
could turn the tide for the ill-fated breeder. "We have to get to
next year," he said of efforts to keep DOE from deactivating
the reactor until the new Congress is seated.
Oliver points to an Oct. 8 letter from Health & Human
Services Secretary Tommy Thompson as a sign that there is
support within the Bush administration for using the breeder
reactor. Thompson said he was "concerned that there may be
insufficient quantities of radioisotopes for treatment and diagnostic
purposes" and urged Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
to consider the proposal to redeploy the FFTF as a privately
operated facility.
"DOE doesn't see production of medical isotopes as part
of its mission," Oliver said. But he believes Thompson's
interest will help further debate on the need for the FFTF.
Although Congress has not approved a fiscal 2003 funding
bill for DOE, Senate appropriators have recommended
$36.1-million be appropriated for the FFTF shutdown. "The
[Appropriations] Committee expects the Department to move
forward quickly on the permanent deactivation of this facility,"
it said in a report (Senate Rpt. 107-220).
That amount is lower than DOE's contractor request of
$44-million, Oliver said. He said originally it was estimated to
cost $300-million to deactivate the reactor, but that the figure
has grown substantially.
DOE contractor Fluor Hanford's "low estimate of $547-
million dollars for the first seven years of mothballing FFTF
will be in direct competition with Hanford clean-up dollars,"
Clint Didier, a former National Football League player who
supports FFTF, wrote in a recent letter to the editor of the
local newspaper Tri-City Herald.
"If a similar facility was scheduled for construction today,
it is estimated it would take 8 to 15 years and $7- to $8-billion
dollars to complete," Didier said.-Jenny Weil, Washington