The Tri-City organization whose middle name used to be nuclear is growing tepid in its support for keeping a Hanford research reactor alive, charges one of the most zealous backers of saving the Fast Flux Test Facility.

Claude Oliver, president of Citizens for Medical Isotopes and a Benton County commissioner, is openly suggesting some board members of the Tri-City Economic Development Council are working behind the scenes to sabotage efforts to save FFTF.

The motive, Oliver implied, is financial gain. But he stopped short of making any direct accusations and didn't offer a theory about how anyone might benefit from a secret anti-FFTF effort.

TRIDEC, which once was known as the Tri-City Nuclear Industrial Council, remains on record as opposed to permanently shutting down the experimental reactor, which is owned by the Department of Energy.

Oliver said he wants full public disclosure of the financial interests of all 39 members of the Tri-City Economic Development Council board.

He specifically wants Bob Ferguson, head of Nuvotec and TRIDEC's board vice chairman for Hanford programs, to be the first to disclose his financial interests.

"Bob Ferguson is the power behind TRIDEC," Oliver said.

Ferguson, a longtime Tri-Citian who once led the Washington Public Power Supply System and before that played a key role in FFTF's construction, has been out of town for several days and could not be reached for comment. During the 1990s, he led pro-FFTF lobbying efforts.

TRIDEC's two top officials -- board Chairman Frank Armijo and President Bill Martin -- dismissed Oliver's suspicions as unfounded and say disclosure of financial interests of the volunteer board is unwarranted.

"It's a ridiculous request and concept," Martin said.

What's more, the contention that Ferguson runs TRIDEC is misguided, he said. "Bob Ferguson does not control TRIDEC. No one individual holds sway over the group."

Oliver's criticisms are the latest chapter in a decade-long battle over saving FFTF.

In the past two years, DOE twice decided not enough missions exist to justify resurrecting the reactor. Right now, the shutdown is stalled by a lawsuit filed by Benton County.

Tri-City leaders have presented a united front in efforts to convince DOE to save the reactor until a week ago, when longtime FFTF supporter Vic Parrish, chief executive officer of Energy Northwest (the successor to WPPSS), wrote an opinion column for the Dec. 8 Tri-City Herald that said the revival battle is lost, and Tri-Citians should focus on obtainable goals.

He became the first Tri-City leader to take that stance publicly.

Mike Lawrence, a former Richland DOE manager and another high-profile leader in the Tri-City nuclear community, wrote a letter to the editor that backed Parrish. Lawrence stressed he wrote as a private individual.

Oliver believes Parrish acted as a front man for some unnamed people interested in the FFTF shutting down.

"He has been prompted by other forces in the community to do this," Oliver said.

Parrish said he wrote the column on his own, however. As the head of Energy Northwest and a community leader, he said, he felt it was time to address the issue realistically. Martin and Armijo also said no one in TRIDEC tried to influence Parrish.

"Vic Parrish? No one could convince him to do anything unless he thought it was the right thing to do," Armijo said.

Last summer, when the TRIDEC board unanimously supported studying FFTF as a potential source of medical isotopes to combat cancer, the action came after some internal debates and discussions.

"TRIDEC had several of the same questions Vic Parrish mentioned in his article concerning the FFTF," Armijo said. "TRIDEC never received clear answers to these questions. Nonetheless, TRIDEC passed a resolution in support of the FFTF again just a few months ago."

Parrish's column noted the unsuccessful searches for a viable private owner-operator for FFTF, the long and uncertain federal licensing process, obtaining liability insurance and the disposal of radioactive wastes.

"Unfortunately, it seems that whoever asks what seem to be very valid questions concerning the FFTF initiative, those individuals get maligned. I believe this hurts the FFTF cause when rather than addressing issues, individuals' intentions or motivations get questioned," Armijo said.

TRIDEC's board is to meet Thursday, although FFTF is not on the agenda. "But I'm sure it will be discussed," Armijo said.

TRIDEC, a private nonprofit corporation, is among the Tri-Cities' most influential institutions and often receives state and federal economic development grants. Members include small and large businesses, governments, colleges, Hanford contractors, state representatives and other interests.

Lawrence, Oliver and Ferguson are on the board. Parrish is not, but Energy Northwest official Jack Baker is. Its board has always included the Herald's publisher as well.

Board policy requires members to disclose conflicts of interest, says they cannot represent TRIDEC in conflict situations and must abstain from voting on those matters.

The two officials on the board from Fluor Hanford, which runs the FFTF, routinely abstain on FFTF-related votes, Martin said, as does Lawrence because Battelle, his employer, handles some FFTF interests.

Armijo and Martin said full public disclosure of the board members' financial interests would discourage people from serving on a volunteer board.

Martin said chairman-elect Sandy Matheson plans to review conflict-of-interest rules with all board members when she assumes her post in January.

Oliver already walks a conflict-of-interest tightrope as a county commissioner and president of Citizens for Medical Isotopes. The Benton County Prosecutor's Office has reviewed that situation and concluded that Oliver could ethically hold both posts, but also warned him to be careful.

As a result, Citizens for Medical Isotopes did not join Benton County in the federal lawsuit trying to force DOE to conduct a full environmental impact study prior to closing FFTF.

Oliver believes Benton County, Citizens for Medical Isotopes and U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., are the only ones left lobbying wholeheartedly for FFTF in Washington, D.C.

He contended TRIDEC's Washington, D.C., lobbyists have not been as aggressive as they should be.

Sam Volpentest, who is in charge of TRIDEC's lobbying of the federal government, was ill Friday and unavailable to discuss Oliver's contentions.