WASHINGTON -- It was a decision a string of energy secretaries tried to avoid, an issue that left Washington state's two Democratic senators walking a political tightrope and a top priority for an Oregon senator who never stopped trying.

But in the end, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham couldn't find a mission to rationalize keeping the Fast Flux Test Facility open, and even U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., whose district includes the Hanford reservation, appeared resigned to the fact the fight may finally be over.

"The secretary promised a fair, open and thorough review," said Hastings, who had convinced Abraham to conduct an eight-month study of whether enough medical isotopes could be manufactured at FFTF to justify its restart. "While not the result we had hoped for, this was a battle absolutely worth fighting -- and those in the Tri-Cities community who fought the battle with us have every reason to be proud of their tremendous effort."

Former Energy Secretary James Watkins first suggested it might be time to permanently shut down the test reactor, but the first Bush administration never followed through.

Former Clinton administration Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary put FFTF on "hot" standby in 1993 but never agreed to close it for good or order a restart. Another Clinton administration energy secretary, Federico Peña, also declined to make a final decision.

Washington state politicians, led by Hastings, former Republican Sen. Slade Gorton and former Republican Rep. Sid Morrison, always appeared able to tantalize Congress and the energy secretaries with one more possible mission for FFTF. Those included producing tritium for nuclear weapons, destroying warheads facing elimination under arms control treaties, burning highly radioactive waste, producing nuclear fuel for deep space probes, testing fuel for the next generation of nuclear reactors and, finally, producing medical isotopes.

State politicians took on some of the toughest members of Congress, including U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., the longtime chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee who considered restarting FFTF a direct threat to the Energy Department's Savannah River complex. They also battled with powerful appropriations chairmen such as former U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La.

In the end, former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson pulled the plug in the final days of the Clinton administration. On Wednesday, Abraham declined to plug it back in.

For the state's two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, FFTF has been a no-win proposition. On the west side of the state, their core Democratic constituencies traditionally have included the environmental and anti-nuclear communities. Both groups adamantly opposed restarting FFTF.

In the Tri-Cities, community leaders and organized labor, another core Democratic constituency, have supported restarting the reactor. But the senators have to run statewide, and there are simply more voters west of the Cascades.

Though lukewarm in her support, Murray believed DOE needed to thoroughly study the medical isotope proposal. She took a lot of heat at a state Democratic Party convention several years ago for her stand.

Last year, when the department needed to reprogram money to pay for an ongoing study, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sought to block it. Wyden had long complained money to restart the reactor would come out of Hanford's cleanup budget. And he argued nothing should be allowed to interfere with cleaning up the reservation, which he considered part of Oregon's back yard.

Wyden went to New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who as the top Democratic senator on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee could have stopped the reprogramming for the FFTF study. Murray, however, convinced Bingaman that the study needed to be completed. Murray also essentially told Bingaman that she would abide by the study's conclusions and support any decision Richardson reached.