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The Secretary of Energy today accepted the final report of a 90-day review of options for restart or shutdown of the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) located at the Department's Hanford Reservation near Richland, Washington, and announced that the department will begin a 60-day review of one expression of interest in using the FFTF as a commercial production facility for medical isotopes in the treatment of cancer and research, as well as other industrial uses.

The initial review and report on options for reactor restart or shutdown was commissioned by the Secretary in April, directing the Department of Energy (DOE) to thoroughly review all relevant factors affecting the January 2001 decision to permanently deactivate the FFTF. The final report was forwarded to the Office of the Secretary on July 27, by Mike Holland, director of the review team.

Based on the review of all options and the submitted expressions of commercial interest, the review team concluded that only one submittal provides new information worthy of further consideration for the potential commercial use of the facility and several other surplus Hanford facilities. The submittal describes the potential use of these facilities for the production of medical and other industrial isotopes.

A working group that includes DOE's real property and procurement specialists and legal counsel will be tasked to evaluate, by the end of September 2001, the viability of the submittal to use the facility for the commercial production of medical and other industrial isotopes, and options for disposition of the property. Based on that evaluation and considerations of the submittal under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Secretary will then decide whether to pursue disposition of the FFTF for commercial use or move ahead with facility deactivation.

The final report forwarded to the Secretary also includes:

• The cost and schedule estimates of the deactivation and restart of the FFTF, which were found to be reasonable but yet to be validated.
• Potential new nuclear research programs that could be considered by DOE.
• Extensive stakeholder comments received during the review on issues related to the restart or deactivation of the FFTF.