Nation’s Most Modern Reactor Scheduled for Closing; DOE Cites Costs : Nuclear energy: The phasing out of the Fast Flux test facility in Washington state will mean loss of 1,000 jobs.

The federal government’s newest nuclear reactor, a gleaming showcase in comparison to Cold War-era plants, is about to be closed.

The Department of Energy announced recently that it will shut the Hanford nuclear reservation’s Fast Flux Test Facility in order to reduce costs.

The 8-year-old test reactor, largest of its kind, never had a permanent mission. Its backers had hoped it would be used to produce plutonium for the space program, but instead, the Energy Department will rely on reactors more than 30 years old at the Savannah River project near Aiken, S. C.

The DOE said that project is far less costly to maintain and operate than the $1-billion Flux facility.

Savannah River has been shut down because of hazardous malfunctions, however, and Hanford supporters say that it would be hypocritical for the department, supposedly committed to public safety, to opt for the South Carolina project.

“This is a reactor that meets every standard, and they don’t want to pay for it,” said Rep. Sid Morrison (R-Wash.), who is leading a fight in Congress to restore operating funds to one of the biggest employers in his district.

Flux is the only military reactor that meets the federal standards for commercial nuclear power plants, said Sen. Brock Adams (D-Wash.). And it has an operating record that commercial reactors could envy. It was running 98% of the time it was supposed to in 1986, the Energy Department said.

But the DOE, facing billions of dollars in replacement costs after decades of mismanaging its reactor complexes here, in South Carolina, in Colorado and elsewhere, decided to shut down Flux in the next four years.

That will wipe out 1,000 jobs at Hanford, which lost 2,000 jobs over the last two years as plutonium production for nuclear weapons was discontinued.

“Unfortunately, the message people get out of this is they may be praised for their work ethic and attitudes, but the jobs will go somewhere else that is cheaper,” Morrison said.

Built as a prototype for the Clinch River breeder-reactor program, Flux began life in 1982 without a permanent mission when Congress decided to kill Clinch River, an expensive attempt to design a reactor that could both generate and burn plutonium.

The Hanford test reactor was started up, and has been performing experiments on the durability of reactor parts and fuel, producing radioactive isotopes for medicine, and carrying out other functions.

“Fast flux” refers to the speed of neutrons on the reactor core during the fission process. The neutrons are not slowed down as in conventional reactors, so nuclear fuel is produced more rapidly.

Without a permanent mission, the test reactor faced annual budget battles. Last year, Energy Secretary James Watkins offered encouragement that production of plutonium-238 for the nation’s space reactor program would be transferred from Savannah River to Hanford, after extensive modifications.

A budget analysis prepared for the department showed that modifying and operating the Hanford reactor for plutonium production would cost more than $1 billion through fiscal 1995, versus $172 million at Savannah River.

The DOE also said that once Savannah River’s reactors are restarted, they would be the only ones able to produce plutonium in the early 1990s in time to meet National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Pentagon needs.

Hanford supporters say the Energy Department did not factor in the cost of writing off the $1-billion investment in Flux. Neither did it take into account that the Savannah River plants will have to be replaced soon anyway--if restarted at all.

The Flux shutdown is scheduled to begin in April and conclude by fiscal 1994, at a cost estimated at $275 million.

Though the state’s congressional delegation unanimously promised to fight the shutdown, some members conceded privately that it is an uphill battle.

For one thing, the Savannah River plants are much cheaper to operate.

For another, the Energy Department cushioned the blow to Hanford by boosting the site’s budget request by $217 million, to a record $1.2 billion, and adding 300 jobs to a payroll of more than 13,000. Most of the increases will go toward the 30-year cleanup of the nuclear wastes at the department’s most polluted site.

Morrison said that cleanup funds are overdue, however, because of past federal abuses of the environment.

Hanford was built as part of the secret Manhattan Project during the race to develop the first atomic bomb during World War II. Residents of the area are proud of their history of making something useful for the nation, Morrison said.

“We want to produce something,” Morrison said. “That’s born in us.”