They don't say so in fairy tales, but the good guy doesn't always win.

Vic Parrish, head of Energy Northwest, believes it's time Tri-Citians swallowed the bitter truth and concede the battle for the Fast Flux Test Facility, however noble, is lost.

"I am filled with deep sorrow," Parrish wrote in Sunday's Herald. "FFTF is an incomparable machine. Its people are some of the best. Together, they could produce a dazzling array of isotopes that not only would save lives, but also would provide a platform for even greater leaps toward improving the human condition."

But, he concludes, the fight is lost.

"The inescapable conclusion is this: FFTF will be dismantled, regardless of what we in the Mid-Columbia do. Administrations of two separate presidents -- Republican and Democrat -- have said FFTF should be closed."

In saying so, Parrish, the chief executive officer of a public power consortium that operates the region's only operating nuclear power plant, became the first high-profile community member to say it's time to move on.

Sunday found few people ready to join the retreat, although it is stirring considerable debate among FFTF supporters.

Bill Martin, president of the Tri-City Industrial Development Council, noted his agency is a long-standing supporter of FFTF. This year, it has provided $14,000 to fuel the restart effort and has provided similar resources in recent years.

That said, the TRIDEC board conditioned future support on getting answers from Citizens for Medical Isotopes, the group championing the restart effort. Martin said the board asked for a business plan and for answers to questions about licensing and liability -- issues similar to those raised by Parrish himself.

But that's where TRIDEC and Parrish part ways.

"We asked the same questions, but we haven't reached the same conclusion that Vic has," Martin said.

The TRIDEC executive committee will take up the subject when it meets this week for what should have been a quick holiday gathering.

Claude Oliver, Benton County commissioner and president of Citizens for Medical Isotopes, remained undaunted by what some view as the beginning of the end.

To the contrary -- he believes support is building and the facility can be saved if Washington's political leaders will step forward and lend their support. Aside from the medical implications of FFTF, he said the Tri-Cities needs FFTF to sustain the economy when federal spending on the $5.6 billion Hanford waste glassification plant is finished.

"If you think you're going to ride the cleanup wagon forever, that isn't going to happen," he said, noting a medical isotope community is projected to create 3,000 jobs in eight years and to double that figure in the 10 years after.

"If Mr. Parrish had spent time with me on the front lines for the last few months, he would see a whole new world not opening up. It is not a time for retreat," he said.

The citizens group has spent much of its time looking for a commercial partner to run the facility. Potential candidates will visit the Tri-Cities for a series of meetings this weekend, he said.

In an interview, Parrish said he agonized over whether to go public with his belief that the FFTF fight has long been lost and that continuing on would jeopardize other local priorities in Washington, D.C. Those priorities include Hanford cleanup funding and other endeavors that could bring jobs to the area.

"I think it's diluting our focus," he said.

Further, moving on would heal the wounds from repeated rejection of the facility, Parrish said. "Every time DOE turned it down, there's been a huge emotional toll," he said.

Parrish, who as a board member of TRIDEC has helped seek other missions for the reactor, said other community leaders share his view and he hopes they also will step forward.

"I've had a lot of people come up to me and say, 'This is something that should be let go,' " he said.

Parrish said he finally decided to go public with his views partly because of efforts at Energy Northwest to emphasize a set of company "core values."

Among those values, he said, is that employees should not be afraid to voice opinions, even when they may be unpopular. "My conscience was nagging at me," Parrish said.

He added that the situation is not all that different from Energy Northwest's reconsideration of whether to finish Plant No. 1, one of four nuclear plants the consortium started building but never finished in the 1970s and 1980s.

A study last year determined the facility could never be affordably completed, and Energy Northwest has since gone back to pursuing plans for restoring the plant's site near the operating Columbia Generating Station nuclear plant.

Parrish, 56, came to Energy Northwest in 1992 and became CEO in 1996. His decision to go public with his views on FFTF had nothing to do with Energy Northwest, he said.

"I feel a fair amount of responsibility as one of the leaders in the community," he said.

"It's a noble fight, but there's a time when you know you're not going to get across that beachhead," Parrish said.