Restart of Hanford Facility Could
Create Jobs & Save Lives
District 751 continued
efforts to create high-wage, high-skilled jobs in the State of
Washington -- focusing this time on the Hanford Fast Flux Text
Facility (FFTF). 751 Administrative Assistant Ron McGaha and 1951
retiree Keith Smith were accompanied by twenty 751 members, as
they testified at a September 26th hearing in Seattle in an effort
to encourage the Department of Energy (DOE) to restart FFTF.
If the Department of Energy moves forward with their plan, taxpayers
will face hefty expenses to decommission FFTF (estimated at $1.3
billion if deactivation is done quickly or $2.1 billion if work
is extended over more years). The logical solution is to use
the FFTF to produce medical isotopes for the next 30 years and
during that time set aside $1 billion in sales for eventual deactivation
and decommissioning. This plan would save lives, create jobs,
and eventually pay for demolition when the reactor passed its
useful lifespan -- making it a win-win situation.
If you or someone you love has battled cancer, then you have a
stake in restarting FFTF. This unique facility is capable of providing
large quantities and a wide variety of high quality medical isotopes
used to treat various cancers. FFTF is the safest high-powered
reactor in the world, and is the newest, most sophisticated reactor
in the U.S. Department of Energy complex.
In June, proponents of restarting the facility delivered this
information to the White House and presented letters of interest
from three national companies who would like to produce the isotopes
at FFTF.
Please help us in our quest to re-open the FFTF as soon as possible
by sending an e-mail or letter. The DOE is collecting public comments
through October 14th. Comments can be sent to: O. A. (Al Farabee,
U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office, P.O. Box
550 (N2-36), Richland, WA 99352 or e-mailed to: Oliver_A_Al_Farabee@rl.gov.
Opportunities identified for FFTF range from health care, to nuclear
waste to space exploration, with potential cost reduction in decontamination
and decommission of over $1 billion to U.S. Treasury.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS IF FFTF IS RESTARTED:
· Potential of creating hundreds of jobs.
Medicine: The FFTF can provide a wide variety of the latest
medical isotopes which are used in treatments for cancer and other
diseases.
· Currently, there is a critical shortage in the availability
of many medical isotopes, especially those with very short lives
(a few days in length). Shockingly, our medical research
facilities import more than 90% of the medical isotopes used.
The FFTF has the capacity to produce 2-3 times more medical
isotopes than all other reactors in the nation combined.
· Medical isotopes for use in targeted therapy and diagnostics
is expanding and our country needs a new production source.
· Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research and Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center are just two facilities expressing an interest in
using FFTF medical isotopes.
Waste: The FFTF is capable of 'burning' existing high level
nuclear waste by-products and changing them into low level nuclear
wastes and beneficial products such as medical isotopes! Talk
about turning lemons into lemonade - this is it!
Space: NASA needs facilities to produce "space batteries"
and test fuels, coolants and materials that FFTF can provide.
McGaha testified "FFTF by its very name, Fast Flux Test Facility,
is a scientific research tool. . .We have already paid for it,
why waste this national resource? The Manhattan Project, during
World War II, unlocked the secrets of the atom. The
FFTF has the potential of being the center
of a 'Manhattan-style' project for the treatment of cancer.
In the interest of every cancer patient who can benefit from the
research and production of medical isotopes, in the interest of
safe, clean energy and the development of nuclear waste disposal
technology, and in the interest of creating and preserving living
wage jobs in Washington State, we urge the Department of Energy
to restart the Fast Flux Test Facility."
1951 member Keith Smith also offered testimony
at the hearing, along with dozens of cancer patients, who literally
pleaded for this facility. Doctors testified on the need for medical
isotopes and emphasized that the U.S. is far behind other countries.
These isotopes have a very short life, and because they are not
produced in the U.S. doctors are limited on their research and
development. Doctors pointed out if the FDA approves the use of
some currently experimental treatments, thousands of cancer patients
will need the isotopes rather than just the handful getting the
treatment in the experiments - making it more imperative to produce
the isotopes here.