Doe Delays Fast Flux Decommission

The U.S. Energy Department, reacting to criticism, decided Tuesday to delay efforts to further decommission the Fast Flux Test Facility at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Westinghouse Hanford Co., the contractor that operates Hanford, had planned to begin draining the liquid sodium from the nuclear reactor’s cooling coil on Wednesday.

Last week, Benton County Deputy Prosecutor Sylvia Tarkenton was drafting a request for a temporary restraining order to stop the Energy Department’s shutdown of FFTF. Some scientists believe that draining the cooling coil would be irreversible although DOE officials have denied it.

And U.S. Rep. Richard “Doc” Hastings introduced a bill in Congress last Wednesday that would overturn a 1993 Energy Department decision to decommission the nuclear reactor.

The reactor’s fuel already has been removed.

The 15-year-old reactor was the Energy Department’s newest and one of its safest when the agency decided to shut it down because it had never had a mission to support its $100 million annual budget.

In a letter to Westinghouse, DOE said a delay of a minimum of 48 hours would allow the agency to do an expedited review of the possible benefits of continued operation.