Mid-Columbia supporters of restarting the Fast Flux Test Facility prepared Tuesday to face another wait with a mixture of immediate disappointment and cautious optimism.

Without a tritium mission to tide the reactor operations over until demand for medical uses grows, another patchwork of possible uses will have to be pieced together.

But they're likely to be more palatable to some opponents of a restart than was the possibility of using the reactor to produce tritium for nuclear weapons, said some supporters of the reactor.

"In general, we consider it a positive decision because it removes the tritium mission from consideration for FFTF," said Harold Heacock of the Tri-City Industrial Development Council. "The possibility generated a lot of opposition." On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced the Hanford test reactor would not be used for tritium production. He said he would make a decision on whether or not to begin an environmental impact statement - a necessary step toward restarting the reactor for other uses - in the spring.

The decision will follow a report by the Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee looking at the energy department's nuclear needs and the facilities, including the FFTF, it has to meet those needs.

"Secretary Richardson has assured me, as recently as today, that any future role for the FFTF would be fairly and impartially judged,"said Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash. "I trust that Richardson will make good on his promise to allow science - and the wise use of taxpayer dollars - rule over politics." But he said the delay in making a decision on restarting the reactor "means more missed opportunities of allowing the FFTF to provide the nation with new medical breakthroughs and cancer therapies through medical isotopes." The isotopes are showing promise in medicines that seek out cancer cells in the body and selectively kill them with radiation.

Despite optimism among supporters of a medical isotope mission, a medical mission still would need other programs to support it in its initial years, Heacock said.

But there still could be a package put together that would make operating the reactor cost-effective without producing tritium, said a spokesman for Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash. He said in addition to medical isotopes, that could include plutonium 238 production for space mission batteries, research and classified defense uses.

However, Tom Carpenter, director of the Government Accountability Project, said Tuesday that "no new mission involving production of radioactive and toxic wastes is acceptable at FFTF or anywhere else on the Hanford site. We urge a quick decision by Secretary Richardson putting an end to speculative future missions at FFTF." Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who vigorously had opposed the tritium mission, said it was time for other regions of the country to carry some of the load on national defense issues and allow the Northwest to focus on environmental cleanup, according to a spokesman.

His Democratic counterpart in Washington, Sen. Patty Murray, said she realized the tritium decision came as a disappointment to many in the Mid-Columbia.

Medical isotopes offer "real hope to victims of cancer and other life-threatening illnesses," she said. The DOE needs to make production of the isotopes a priority, whether they're produced at FFTF or another research facility, she said.

Dave Jones, co-chairman of the Nuclear Medicine Research Council, said he was encouraged that the DOE committee looking into nuclear needs has been gathering information from doctors and others on the demand for medical isotopes.

As medical isotopes move from use in research to mainstream medicine, the nation will not be able to meet demand with facilities now operating, he said.

The decision to use commercial reactors to produce tritium came as no surprise to some. It was the least expensive choice, said Pam Brown, Hanford analyst for the city of Richland.

"Secretary Richardson's announcement was very encouraging because it showed a willingness not only to make a decision but also to make that decision based on clear technical and economic arguments," said Walter Apley, director of the FFTF Standby Project Office.

It appears FFTF was kept in the running for tritium to strengthen DOE's negotiating position as it sought to get a commercial reactor operator to sell irradiation services from an existing reactor at a reasonable rate, Apley said.

Now, FFTF supporters need to continue working together to promote the strengths of the reactor, said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.