FFTF Sodium Drain

["Rick Orthen" <rorthen@cecinc.com>]

August 10, 2004 - Tri-City Herald - FFTF sodium drain to begin next week -

The Department of Energy plans to permanently pull the plug on Hanford's

Fast Flux Test Facility next week. Sodium is scheduled to be drained from

its primary loops, possibly as early as Monday, ending the dream of

restarting the test reactor for even its staunchest supporters. The process

will take two to three weeks. Saving the reactor now would take "an act of

God," said Benton County Commissioner Claude Oliver late Friday afternoon.

Republican and Democrat administrations have looked at restarting the

reactor, but found no financially viable plan for its use. Plans floated

over the past dozen years have included using it to produce electricity,

tritium for nuclear weapons, isotopes to power deep space missions and

isotopes for new medicines, industry and agriculture. With the permanent

shutdown of FFTF, Hanford is unlikely to ever have a federal nuclear

production mission again. The reservation was created in World War II to

make plutonium for the nuclear weapons program.