Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham found a proposal to restart Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility for commercial use too big a gamble and Wednesday ordered the reactor permanently shut down.

With the previous Democratic administration coming to the same conclusion as the current Republican administration, the announcement left little possibility that DOE's largest and most modern reactor will operate again. It also ends the potential for any nuclear production at Hanford.

"(I) understand that this decision may come as a disappointment to you and many in your community," Abraham wrote in a letter to U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. "Nevertheless, I want to assure you that this review was conducted in an objective and thorough manner."

An analysis of costs concluded that if the commercialization plan went sour, DOE could be left with $1 billion in extra expenses. That's in addition to the $1 billion cost of an unbudgeted federal research project proposed for the reactor.

Supporters of restarting the research reactor called those estimates ridiculous. With leadership from Hastings, they've pushed for a restart of the reactor primarily to make isotopes for medical use, including promising new ways of treating cancer.

Instead of restarting the reactor, DOE is working to expand medical isotope programs, including at Richland and Oak Ridge, Tenn., said DOE's report on the commercialization review.

That presumably refers to a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory program, now commercialized, to produce medical isotopes from waste. Oak Ridge National Laboratory also is producing medical isotopes from stockpiled uranium 233.

Those programs produce a total of three types of isotopes for medicine, while FFTF was being considered for production of 30 different isotopes for cancer treatment.

In the FFTF proposal, Advanced Nuclear and Medical Systems, or ANMS, of Richland was proposing leasing the reactor for 35 years and operating it with a team of companies well known for their nuclear expertise, including Duke Engineering and Services. Surplus mixed oxide fuel would be imported from Germany.

But DOE was concerned about the financing and costs the government would be responsible for, according to the review report.

"The ANMS proposal contained business and legal obstacles that would likely result in lengthy project delays," Abraham wrote in the letter to Hastings.

ANMS was asking that DOE continue to spend about the same amount of money it spends now annually on the dormant reactor, $40 million, for a total of $120 million over three years. But DOE questioned whether the reactor could surmount legal and other hurdles to begin operating in three years, requiring further financial help from DOE.

That includes getting clearance from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate the reactor. DOE has provided safety and oversight regulation of the reactor to date, but the commission oversees safety of commercial nuclear ventures.

In the only other situation where a nuclear facility, an Ohio gaseous diffusion plant, has switched from DOE to NRC regulation, legislation was required.

DOE also suggested that expensive upgrades might be needed at FFTF to allow it to meet NRC regulations, which differ from DOE regulations, even though safety of the reactor has been unquestioned by DOE.

Should the ANMS venture fall apart during the lease, DOE would be left with some expensive problems, the report said.

That included surplus fuel from Germany. It's enough of a problem that Germany is giving $35.8 million to DOE to take the fuel. The money would cover transportation and conversion costs.

ANMS also would establish a $400 million trust fund for the eventual decontamination of FFTF from its profits under the proposal.

"However, if the venture were to prove unviable, DOE would be left with the entire, and significant, cost of decontamination and decommissioning," the DOE report said.

However, Bill Stokes, ANMS president, pointed out that DOE already is faced with decommissioning costs, whether the reactor restarts or not. If DOE was left with surplus German fuel, a portion of the $35.8 million would also be unused to deal with it, he said.

DOE also appeared unimpressed with the Compass Group in Spokane, an investment advisory firm to building-trade pension trusts, which would finance the FFTF restart with pension money.

The report characterized Compass as "a small company that, to date, does not have experience with large projects and has handled projects valued at $30 million or less."

However, Stokes countered that Compass has invested assets in excess of $1.3 billion and had a potential pool of as much as $5 billion to be drawn on for the $200 million it was considering investing in the reactor.

Finally, the Bush administration had the same concerns as the Clinton administration about commercial demand for medical isotopes.

"Representatives from the medical industry have voiced general support of isotope production using FFTF, but there are no identified commercial buyers in the ANMS proposal," the report said.

Stokes said with time, ANMS could have produced those commitments. Its proposal was submitted under a 30-day deadline for companies to provide proposals for using FFTF.

There were 90 other responses, although none had the kind of specific commitments that caused DOE to take a second look.

However, DOE interest in also using the reactor for research was revived by the new administration's energy policy that called for developing new nuclear energy technologies.

Argonne National Laboratory proposed FFTF be used to demonstrate a new process that would allow the recycling and reuse of spent nuclear fuel.

However, the program would cost $1 billion over eight years, which is not included in budget projections for future years, the DOE report said.

Tri-City supporters of the reactor said Wednesday that they'll continue to fight.

"It's a huge blow for the community," said Benton County Commissioner Claude Oliver. "It's a huge slap in the face to organized labor."

He and other supporters plan a trip to Washington, D.C., in January to point out the flaws in the report signed by Abraham, he said. Organized labor also plans to continue lobbying for a restart.

Top DOE officials knew that Mid-Columbia supporters believed they were close to receiving an additional $1 million for the project from the Hanford Area Economic Development Fund, Oliver said. For the review to be fair, DOE should have given ANMS and supporters enough time to finish details of the proposal, he said.

Stokes had proposed a six-month period to identify pharmaceutical company customers, provide specific financial details for a binding commitment from the Compass Group and refine other financial details.

Stokes said the Senate has been more influenced by strong opposition from Oregon senators than statements from Washington's Democratic senators calling for a fair review of an FFTF restart.

The Government Accountability Project, which opposed a restart, credited U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., with forcing DOE to order a shutdown.

"The fight is over," said Gerald Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest, which has opposed a restart. "It's done with, and now it's time for all of us to put the fight behind us and get FFTF deactivated as fast as possible."

DOE stopped using FFTF after 10 years in 1992 for lack of a mission for the reactor, but several attempts have been made since then to find a new use for it. However, once the sodium is drained from the reactor, it cannot be restarted.