The government is trying to sneak past the public its plans to revive a dormant Hanford reactor, Northwest environmentalists charged Tuesday.

The Department of Energy has listed the Fast Flux Test Facility as an option for making plutonium 238 for space-mission batteries with little public notice, they said during a Seattle press conference.

They also argued FFTF is not safe enough and a catastrophic accident could lead to Hanford seizing crops that would be contaminated.

About 15 environmental and public interest groups - led by Heart of America Northwest and the Government Accountability Project - made the charges.

Hanford officials dismissed the contentions, saying the groups selectively picked some worst-case scenarios and numbers from Hanford reports, then incorrectly mixed and manipulated them to create false impressions.

The charges precede a Department of Energy public hearing scheduled at 7 p.m. Thursday at Richland's Tower Inn on the scope of any future environmental impact studies on creating plutonium 238 at the FFTF. DOE officials will be available at 5 p.m. to answer questions.

The plutonium 238 proposal is one potential mission considered for FFTF, along with making tritium, medical isotopes and other possibilities.

The FFTF is among several reactors nationwide that could make plutonium 238 for outer-space probes.

The FFTF - which also is being considered as a backup or interim tritium source for atomic bombs -can handle several missions at once. The medical isotopes and plutonium 238 missions each need at least one companion mission to be cost effective in the FFTF.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is to decide this year whether the FFTF will be studied further as a possible tritium source.

At Tuesday's press conference, FFTF opponents charged:

DOE should have scheduled public hearings on the plutonium 238 issue in Seattle, Portland and other cities - not just in Richland. The FFTF is a regional concern, and Seattle and Portland residents should not have to drive 200 miles to testify, said Tom Carpenter of GAP.

Heart of America obtained through the Freedom of Informa tion Act at least three 1997 internal DOE memos that discussed delaying the public meetings, not wanting large public meetings or not wanting one in Seattle.

Gerald Pollet of Heart of America contended they show a DOE pattern of trying to to stifle public input. Instead, public meetings are "aimed at selling the FFTF, instead of having public involvement," he contended.

There is a risk an FFTF accident could release 80,000 curies of radiation and require Hanford to seize crops as a protective measure. Opponents charge DOE documents show that chances of certain "severe" tritium mission accidents run to "1 in 100" years.

The likelihood of the most catastrophic potential accidents is extremely remote, said Al Farabee, DOE's FFTF program manager, and Walt Apley, director of Hanford's FFTF Standby Project Office. The mostly likely accidents -the "1 in 100" category - would not threaten the health and safety of people outside the reactor, they said.

Safety measures would be studied - and upgraded if needed - if the tritium mission gets approved, Farabee said.

The 80,000-curie accident scenario cited by critics involves a truck - with a full load of tritium reactor targets - wrecking on a highway with all the tritium immediately being released, said Apley, noting this is a transportation scenario happening away from the FFTF - not an accident that actually involves the reactor.

Farabee and Apley were not familiar with the crop seizure scenario but said that is a likely procedure in any catastrophic radiation release anywhere.

Hanford officials said Thursday's plutonium 238 hearing is a preliminary meeting to get public opinion on how broadly this issue should be examined in future environmental studies on the FFTF. If Richardson decides to have the FFTF studied further, an expanded set of future public hearings will address tritium, medical isotopes, plutonium 238 and other matters, officials said.

DOE spokeswoman Karen Randolph said the 1997 memos cited by Pollet pertained to early DOE brainstorming on public hearings, with a wide range of opinions voiced by many people. "There will be an open and healthy discussion on what we do," she said.