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"Speakers at a public hearing Tuesday night split their comments between calling for the Fast Flux Test Facility to be saved and worries that proposed cleanup plans for Hanford would not protect the environment and human health. The Department of Energy hearing in Richland kicked off a series of eight meetings in three states to hear public opinion on a wide-ranging draft study that lays out options for cleanup of many areas of the Hanford nuclear reservation. More than 100 people attended. Among the decisions that the Draft Tank Closure and Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement recommends are entombing FFTF, emptying 99 percent of radioactive waste from underground tanks, leaving the emptied tanks in the ground and extending a ban on sending many types of radioactive waste to Hanford."

Ground work for significant Hanford cleanup is laid out for decades to come in a draft version of a massive new environmental study of Hanford released in the Tri-Cities on Monday. Among decisions it recommends are entombing Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility, emptying 99 percent of waste from underground tanks, leaving the emptied tanks in the ground, and continuing to ban some, but not all, radioactive waste from being sent to Hanford. The Draft Tank Closure and Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement is more than 6,000 pages and has been in the works since 2003. Topics it covers have been expanded several times in that time. The draft study will be the basis for a final study and followed by decisions by the Department of Energy.

Ground work for significant Hanford cleanup is laid out for decades to come in a draft version of a massive new environmental study of Hanford released in the Tri-Cities on Monday. Among decisions it recommends are entombing Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility, emptying 99 percent of waste from underground tanks, leaving the emptied tanks in the ground, and continuing to ban some, but not all, radioactive waste from being sent to Hanford. The Draft Tank Closure and Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement is more than 6,000 pages and has been in the works since 2003. Topics it covers have been expanded several times in that time. The draft study will be the basis for a final study and followed by decisions by the Department of Energy.

The last of the fuel has been removed from Hanford's shutdown Fast Flux Test Facility and shipped to Idaho almost a year ahead of a legal deadline. The research reactor is being deactivated to allow it to be put into a long-term surveillance and maintenance mode at minimum cost by August 2009. The Department of Energy was required under the Tri-Party Agreement to have the last of the fuel removed from the reactor in March 2009.