The future of Hanford's plutonium has become fuzzy in the past few months as the Department of Energy juggles funding and the repercussions of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

DOE faces conflicting pressures that could either speed up or slow down the eventual removal of 4.4 tons of plutonium from Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant.

The unfolding and conflicting developments mean DOE needs to create a viable long-range nationwide master plan for dealing with its leftover Cold War plutonium, said John Conway, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a federal advisory panel on DOE cleanup issues.

Hanford now is converting 4.4 tons of scrap plutonium into safer forms -- eyeing a 2004 completion date. That plutonium is supposed to be shipped to Savannah River, S.C., between 2010 and 2014 to be "immobilized" inside a glasslike substance.

Hanford's immobilized plutonium would go inside canisters to then be surrounded by Savannah River's glassified high-level radioactive tank wastes to make it nearly impossible for terrorists to get the plutonium.

Hanford must get all its plutonium to Savannah River by 2014 to make a legal deadline of 2016 to clean out and demolish the PFP.

However, the Bush administration recently slashed money for DOE to build an up-to-date storage facility to hold plutonium from Hanford, Los Alamos, N.M., and Rocky Flats, Colo. And it did not provide any construction money in 2002 to build the immobilization facility.

Savannah River is fixing up two old storage facilities, which can hold plutonium from Rocky Flats and Los Alamos, but not Hanford.

The plan is that Hanford will hold onto its plutonium as long as possible, and then ship it to Savannah River when that site is ready to glassify Hanford's plutonium, said Pete Knollmeyer, DOE's assistant manager for Hanford's central plateau.

The existing outdated Savannah River facilities are good enough to be only a temporary storage site, Conway said.

If construction of Savannah River's immobilization facility is delayed much longer, that could slow removal of the PFP's plutonium enough to jeopardize the 2016 deadline, Knollmeyer said.

Meanwhile, South Carolina officials view the immobilization plant's delays as a sign that DOE might permanently leave the imported plutonium at Savannah River, according to South Carolina newspapers.

South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges vehemently opposes that possibility and has threatened to stop shipments at the border, news accounts said.

But DOE spokesman Tom Welch said Savannah River will not be the permanent plutonium storage site. He also said Hanford will not be considered as a permanent site.

Conway said that leaves only the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and the proposed spent nuclear fuel repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., as possible permanent plutonium storage locations.

But he noted that WIPP -- a half-mile-deep, man-made cavern -- was not designed to handle massive amounts of plutonium. And the Yucca Mountain project is mired in technical and political problems.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks added yet another complication. Knollmeyer said DOE is now thinking about speeding up consolidating its plutonium at a yet-to-be-determined place to make it easier and cheaper to build a terrorist-proof facility.