}
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
The University Daily
KANSAN
Thursday, April 9, 1981 Vol. 91, No. 129 USPS 650-640
Salt mine repair stirs debate over dumping of radioactive wastes
By ROB STROUD Staff Reporter
The government denies even considering it. The private business interest says the idea is illusory.
But some people still believe that Kansas will soon become the noun's dumping ground for hikers.
But first the Kansas Legislature must grant Rickano a permit to store the waste at Lyons, and that makes State Rep. D. Darrell Webb, D-Wichita, suspicious of Rickano's intentions.
About 160 miles west of Lawrence, at the Carey Salt Mine in Lyons, the Rickano Corporation of Lyons is repairing mine shafts that the company will be used to store low-level radioactive waste.
"They paid $350,000 for the mine and have repairs of another $1 million." Webb said this week. So why would they risk that investment and they don't even know if they'll get a permit?"
WEBB SAID HE thought that the possibility was "really great" that the federal government was secretly planning to use the Lyons salt bed as the national repository for high-level data and that the government was contracted by the government to repair the mines to be used to store the waste.
Jim Harvey, president of Rickano, denied Webb'sremarks.
"There's no way the federal government will contract a private company to handle high-level work."
However, Max McDowell, an Elimda resident who has been independently researching the waste storage issue for two years, said Monday that the government had contracted several firms to do technical work and that the U.S. Department of Energy had contacted Rickano about the Lovins mines.
A DEPARTMENT of Energy spokesman, he said that two nights was "not being considered."
The spokesman also said that no other sites were being considered as a national repository, and he says the agency does not.
He would not rule out Lyons as a possibility.
McDowell went a step further.
"Lyons is the pre-determined winner," he said. "The only repository they've designed is in them. They don't have time to research any other site. It' taken them 20 years to develop this data."
Since the mid-1960s, the federal government has been actively searching for a single site to store the kind of highly radioactive waste that commercial nuclear plants produce. That waste is now piling up in temporary cooling repositories near each plant.
THE SEARCH FOR a national site led to the Lyons salt bed, which some government documents indicate is the perfect geological location for storing high-level waste.
In June 1970, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission tentatively named Lyons as the site but later refused to do so.
William Hambleton, a KU geology professor and director of the Kansas Geological Survey, said he liked to think that the commission had withdrawn Lyons from consideration because of scientific research he had helped conduct at the salt mines.
The trouble with Iyona is that there are just too many ways that water can get into the dish.
**WATER WOULD DISSOLVE the salt beds.**
corrode the waste containers and possibly cause further contamination.
But Webb and McDowell said they thought the only reason the government publicly withdrew Lyons from consideration was because of the public and legislative outcry from Kansas. They believe the government has never stopped planning to make Lyons the national terminal.
“What’s so scary to me is that nobody’s even curious.”
McDowell has used the Freedom of Information Act to gather a stockpile of hundreds of federal government documents that he says proves the validity of his claims.
"It's not that we don't have the documentation," he said. "We have the facts. But no one knows."
M@DOWELL, WHO HAS worked for several Kansas newspapers and the press secretary. Mr. McDonnell is a member of the Board.
See LYONS page 5
ROB POOL/Kenanman, was KU law professor Barkley Clark rests against his 101-year-old roll-top desk as he takes a break between classes. Clark, who is also a city commissioner, was elected for another four-year term on the commission Tuesday night.
Clark known as prof, runner, commissioner
By DALE WETZEL
Staff Reporter
To Lawrence's citizens, he's a longstanding public figure, one who was re-elected Tuesday to an unprecedented third four-year term on the Lawrence City Commission.
To his KU law students, he's a sharp-witted professor of commercial law and local govern-
To the perspiring regulars that pound Allen Field House's indoor track, he's a dogged duo.
Clark said Tuesday night after the citywide vote total had at last been finalized. "It certainly has been a bad day."
TO HIMSELF, however, Barkley Clark is relieved and renewed that his third commission has been completed.
"Because of it, I won't be able to run in the KU marathon next week. I've been too busy running."
'I thought this campaign would never end.'
Clark has been running off and on for about 15 years, ever since he got out of law school. He attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1965 with a Phi Beta Kappa key.
Normally, Clark said, he runs four times a week, between seven and 10 miles each session.
"But, with the campaign and all, I haven't had the time to do proper marathon training, which would involve 17 to 18 miles of running every time out," he said.
Clark is no stranger, however, to the tortuous,
miles-385-yard road race, which is run yearly
here in conjunction with the Kansas Relays. In 1979, he finished 70th in a field of about 650, "on a beautiful spring day, in about three hours and 10 minutes."
"My marathon goal is to break the three-hour barrier," Clark said. "At first, though, when I ran that first marathon, I wasn't sure I would finish."
CLARK, HOWEVER, managed to avoid that marathoner's curse, the "wall of pain" that sets in around the 22-mile mark, and finished the race handily.
Instead of hitting the wall, "Clark said." I felt violently, "my legs were getting tighter and tighter.—my legs were getting tighter and tighter."
d trouble walking around for about
See CLARK page 5
Beer cans pride, joy of JRP
By KATHY MAAC Staff Reporter
The eye-catching pyramid of beer cans and bottles in Jose R. Pearson Residence Hall is reputed to be one of the most geographically popular liquor container collections in the Midwest.
The collection, started six years ago by a graduate student living in the hall, today comprises about sixty canes and bottles—foreign, American, white, dark, ales—almost every brand ever made.
"We feel it it's an appropriate collection for a group of college men," Dennis Constance, JRP housemanager, said. "It's become a pet project of the hall government."
BOB GREENSPAN/Kansan staff
Old versions of the same brand, called obsoletes, are favorites among collectors. Comic books and comics magazines
Unusual names, such as Frothinglasho, Dinkel Acker, Polish Plowe Lager and Asai round out the list.
Hall alumni and residents who travel during school breaks have continually added to the collection, which now includes cans and bottles from various countries including Spain, Austria, Germany, Australia and Mexico.
Dennis Constance, housemanager of JRP residence hall and caretaker of the hall's beer can collection, shows one of the many cans on display in the hall's lobby.
as "Billy Beer" and "J.R. Beer," also are popular.
Beer can collecting is inexpensive, with a valuable can worth about $100. Trading groups, like the Beer Can Collectors of America, use a system to exchange and enlarge their collections.
"Some companies change their cans from time to time to cater to collectors." Constance said.
"Ive heard of collectors with about 5,000 to
"Beer can collecting is a slice of Americana, kind of like apple pie." Constance said. "I have my own collection of about 600 cans, even though I don't drink."
6,000 cans." Constance said. "Some people even rent out warehouses for all their cans."
"By the way, all of the cans we have are empty. I don't want anyone to think we're running out."
Social work project breaks barrier between KU. Haskell
By DEBBY FOSTER Staff Reporter
in an effort to break through social and cultural barriers between Haskell Indian Junior College and the University of Kansas, a joint initiative has been implemented between the two schools.
The program, funded by a National Institute of Mental Health grant, is designed to prepare Haskell students to pursue social work degrees at KU or any other university.
Called the American Indian Mental Health Program, it is now in the second year of a five-year program.
Through work with KU, Haskell was able to redesign its social work program so that students would be able to transfer to KU without losing many of their credit hours.
IT IS THE ONLY formal program between Haskell and KU.
"It it used to be that they would come up here (to KU) and find out that instead of being a junior, they were a second semester freshman or even a senior," he said. "Evans, director for the program at KU, said."
There are about 35 students in the Haskell program.
"There has been an increase every semester as students have become more aware of the program." Carl Harper, social work instructor at Haskell said.
There are now three Indian students in the School of Social Welfare at KU. Two of them are
"There are five or six who could potentially transfer from Haskell to KU next year." Evans said.
HASKELL STUDENTS are required to have a
minimum of 60 hours before they can be ad-
dressed.
The courses at Haskell are designed to enable students to work as paraprofessionals in social service and complete the Associate of Arts degree there. The course for prepare students to enter other colleges.
"There is an Indian focus to the courses." Evans said. "We zero in on Indian social services because more than likely that's where they will be working.
It's a pretty difficult curriculum. Most of it is connected with the needs of the Indian community.
ACCORDING TO HARPER, there is a need for Indians to work within their community.
"Indian people have a better understanding of Indian problems," he said.
Taylor Satala, a director of the program, and Evans and Harper are Indians. Each said that he believed being an Indian was beneficial because he is one of the students and to understand the needs they had.
Haskell had a social work program a few years before the Haskell-KU program was initiated, but it was discontinued when Haskell's instructor left and was not immediately renalized.
There is a commitment between the schools to initiate and accomplish through the program, "Evans said.
DIRECTORS said they were hoping that See SOCIAL WELFARE page 5
Future projects depend on space shuttle launch
By ANNIKANILSSON Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Armstrong is a co-investigator in two programs, the Galileo Mission and the International Solar-Polar Project, both of which depend on the shuttle as a launching vehicle.
When the space shuttle is launched tomorrow opportunities for many scientists will rise when it lands.
Among the interested scientists are two KU researchers, Thomas Armstrong, professor of physics and astronomy, and Louis Dellwig, professor of geology.
The two solar-polar spacecrafts, scheduled for launch in 1985, will pass by Jupiter and, after being pulled out of orbit by the planet, will come back over the north and south poles of the sun.
ARMSTRONG SAID the solar-polar spacecraft and the Galileo vehicle would be launched from the orbiting shuttle by an additional booster.
designed to gather detailed information about Jupiter and its satellites. Armstrong said that the vehicle would orbit the planet and that probes dropped into Jupiter's atmosphere would measure temperature, soil composition and winds.
The Galileo Mission, also planned for 1985, is
"The space shuttle in this analogy is the river barge or the heavy truck driving down the interstate" it's the workhorse. The vehicle itself is the least interesting part of the whole business".
"It's the analogy between coming west first on a covered wagon, then on a railroad and, finally, in a Cadillac driving down the interstate," he said.
Galileo's data, Armstrong said, will far exceed the amount of data supplied by the earlier IEEE standards.
THE OTHER KU PROPESSOR, Dellwig, has reserved a place on the second space shuttle. Together with several other researchers, he will conduct experiments to look at the surface features of the Earth.
This information can be used for oil and mineral exploration, Dellwig said.
The object of the experiments is to evaluate the equipment's performance. It would be premature to launch a satellite with the radar on the ground, so examine the optimal way to operate it, Deliwig said.
The space shuttle will not be used solely for research in the future. The shuttle also will be used commercially because of the environment to which it provides access. KU is planning to assume an active role in commercial space exploration.
B. G. BARK, DIRECTOR of the KU Space Technology Center, said he had contacted NASA about a program in which KU would help small and medium-sized manufacturers to determine how they could use the shuttle to reach the unique space environment.
According to Armstrong, the zero gravity environment with unlimited vacuum would be
For example, the sophistication of computers is presently limited by the imperfection of
crystals used in microchips. In a zero gravity environment, perfect crystals may be grown.
Dirt is another limitation for certain industrial processes.
"Making a clean environment is easy to do in space and very difficult on dear earth," he said.
Barr said that if he could find a company interested in exploring such drug production in space, he could arrange for a KU student to do research with NASA.
According to Barr, the prohibitive cost is the major reason companies have not previously considered using space technology in their manufacturing processes.
NASA is planning to charge companies $35 million for renting flight flies.
ACCORDING TO some observers, the clean space environment will open up opportunities for students to interact with the environment.
Barr said that approved budget cuts had forced NASA to tighten its belt, the program's goal.
Weather
It will be clear today with a high near 70, according to the KU Weather Service. Winds will be out of the south at 5 to 15 mph.
Tonight there will be fair skies and calm winds with a low near 45.
Tomorrow will be clear in the morning but increasingly cloudy in the afternoon. The high will be in the lower 70s. The low will be in the middle 50s.