Benton County contends recent changes in the Fast Flux Test Facility's situation bolsters its legal case calling for a full environmental impact study before the reactor can be shut down.

The county filed those arguments last week in U.S. District Court.

During the next two months, the county and the Department of Energy are expected to submit back-and-forth written arguments over whether the federal agency should soon proceed with closing the dormant reactor.

Oral arguments are scheduled for Feb. 25 in the Federal Building in Richland. U.S. District Judge Ed Shea's decision on the environmental impact study will be issued sometime after that.

The Benton County government, spearheaded by county Commissioner Claude Oliver, filed a lawsuit Nov. 8 in an attempt to force DOE to conduct a full environmental impact study.

In the past two years, DOE twice decided that not enough missions could be found to economically justify resurrecting the FFTF. Benton County and a local grassroots group, Citizens for Medical Isotopes, want to revive the reactor, citing its capability to create medical isotopes to combat cancer.

The private group is not a plaintiff, a move to nullify Oliver's potentially conflicting roles as a county commissioner and as president of Citizens for Medical Isotopes.

DOE's Richland office referred questions on the county's latest court filing to the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters. When the Herald called Washington, D.C., midafternoon Pacific Standard Time, it was past closing time at DOE's headquarters, and no one could be reached for comment.

In its filing, the county argued:

-- DOE's recent decision to fund FFTF's shutdown with environmental cleanup money, instead of with the agency's nuclear energy money, creates an environmental impact. That's because FFTF will compete for money with other DOE cleanup projects at Hanford and elsewhere, said attorney John Bolliger, who represents Benton County in the litigation.

-- A recent Fluor Hanford proposal

to eventually store FFTF's nonirradiated and slightly irradiated nuclear fuel at the Plutonium Finishing Plant has environmental consequences to be studied. Fluor has been submitting draft FFTF shutdown plans to DOE as the two figure out the best way to close the reactor.

Meanwhile, DOE and Fluor recently agreed to finish most of the PFP's cleanup by 2006, instead of the previous deadline of 2009, leaving mostly demolition work to be tackled after that date. The county's filing argued the combination of the accelerated PFP work plus the proposal to send FFTF fuel to the PFP lead to environmental consequences to be studied.

-- The big picture has changed with Tommy Thompson, U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, asking Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham last month to consider FFTF as a source of medical isotopes.

Oliver and Bolliger also pointed to DOE pondering if a closed-down FFTF should be sealed off or demolished to create a natural landscape. Fluor's draft plans lean toward sealing. Oliver and Bolliger contended sealing and leaving the main reactor building creates a long-term environmental threat, arguing that requires a full environmental impact study.

Such a study usually takes several months, or possibly more than a year, to finish. If the FFTF supporters win in court, they would gain many extra months to pursue their cause. If the FFTF supporters lose, DOE is scheduled to continue shutdown efforts in March.