Supporters of Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility are expected to soon launch an information campaign aimed at getting more women knowledgeable on the effort to restart the reactor.

The campaign, tentatively called "Woman to Woman," coincides with the group's announcement it believes it has through Thanksgiving to change opinions on the need for the reactor.

Advocates believe the reactor has several missions, including providing medical isotopes to be used to fight cancer and as a test platform for the next generation of nuclear reactors.

Meanwhile, Department of Energy contractors continue work on the deactivation and decommissioning of the reactor.

Wanda Munn, a former Richland city councilwoman and a retired FFTF engineer, said Monday that the Thanksgiving deadline is when autumn temperatures are expected to be cold enough to cause minute material changes to the reactor's drained, outer coolant loops.

Those changes, or cracks, could happen on miles of metal piping, which would make a restart very difficult and cost prohibitive, Munn said.

Up to now, "We have not had cold enough nights to cause problems," she said.

The Department of Energy has declined to turn on heaters that would protect the loops while the political debate on the reactor continues.

Getting those heaters turned on is an immediate goal of FFTF advocates, Munn said.

It's also one reason why advocates are creating the "Woman to Woman" campaign to "urge national officials to recognize what they'll lose without FFTF," Munn said.

She called the estimated $5,000 a month cost to heat the loops minimal compared with the estimated $5 billion advocates believe it would cost to build another reactor to do what FFTF already can provide.

Munn left the Tri-Cities on Tuesday to attend a conference of women engineers, a group from which she plans to ask for support.

She believes the FFTF issue has not been presented broadly enough in the sources women turn to get information. The campaign would correct that, she said.

Munn said she is seeking elected women to be a part of the campaign.

And in a broadly addressed e-mail, Benton County Commissioner Claude Oliver asked, "We need some women warriors who understand how important this battle is for the nation and will not take no for an answer. Do you know some?"

Two elected women the group want in the campaign are Democratic U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. Munn said they have so far failed to join in saving the reactor.

Benton County, Richland and West Richland recently passed resolutions asking the two senators, Gov. Gary Locke and U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., to request the Department of Energy to: protect the drained loops; plan a meeting with DOE, the Department of Health and Human Services, White House representatives, community representatives and others to discuss and define FFTF's missions; and complete a court-ordered environmental impact study on the decommissioning of the reactor.