The 400 Area at Hanford is home primarily to a former nuclear research and test reactor called the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) and many of its support facilities. FFTF was originally designed to develop and test fuels and materials for special nuclear reactors that used liquid metals as coolant, but other missions were subsequently pursued as well. FFTF operated from 1982 to 1992 as a research facility, providing the nuclear industry with advances in fuels, materials and components; power plant operations and maintenance protocols; and reactor safety. During this time, FFTF also produced a wide variety of medical and industrial products for the U.S. fusion research program and conducted cooperative international research work. In late 1993, DOE decided to shut down FFTF due to a lack of feasible missions. Since 2009, FFTF has been in a long-term, low-cost surveillance-and-maintenance condition.
A 2012 DOE environmental impact statement for Hanford included proposed actions and alternatives for the final disposition of FFTF and its support facilities, and an entombment alternative was chosen. Under this alternative, the aboveground reactor building and its adjacent support facilities would be dismantled and removed. Belowground structures would remain in place along with demolition waste in belowground spaces, and be filled with cement-like grout to immobilize remaining radioactive and hazardous material. A special engineered barrier would be built over the filled area, followed by monitoring.
Also at the 400 Area is a large structure called the Fuels and Materials Examination Facility (FMEF). FMEF was intended to be a support building for FFTF, but was never used in any kind of a nuclear capacity. When the FFTF was shut down, FMEF was also left without a mission, and remains unused and mostly vacant today.
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