The University Daily
KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students at the University of Kansas
Vol. 94, No.148 (USPS 650-640)
Wednesday morning, June 13, 1984
First load of fuel being delivered for nuclear plant
By United Press International
TOPEKA — Four months before its projected loading, nuclear fuel has arrived at the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant, a Commission spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Representatives of Kansas Gas & Electric Co., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the KCC said that dry storage of the fuel while the plant was still under construction was not unusual and that the storage posed no significant health hazard.
LEGON MANNELL, of the state Emergency Preparedness Division, said he was informed of the fuel shipment, scheduled for last week, as a precaution in case of an emergency.
"KG&E does have a license from the NRC to receive the fuel, and it is being stored in fuel bundles." said KCC spokeswoman Chris Jacobson. "The NRC has pretty tight limits on how much fuel can be ported and arrival of the fuel, so there is no way we'll ever know when it arrived."
Clyde Wisner, NRC spokesman in Arlington, Texas, said that the fuel arrived at Wolf Creek "recently" but he would not receive further information for security reasons.
"The they do have a license to possess nuclear fuel," Winser said. "It is not unusual at this
Wisner said that the fuel was not irradiated until it was loaded into the plant, so that it could be used in the process.
stage and if it is stored properly, it is not a problem for the NRC."
LYLE KOERPER, spokesman for the Kansas Gas & Electric Co., which owns 47 percent of the $2.7 billion plant, would not comment on the fuel arriving at the plant.
"Shipment and arrival at the site does fail under security matters and because of that, the shipment must be delivered."
"When it's shipped, it's not considered a highly hazardous substance." Koerper said. "I don't like it."
Koerper said that the Wolf Creek fuel containment building is equipped to handle small amounts of fuel.
Power company officials for months had named August as the time for loading fuel in the reactor core, but Jacobson said that time recently was moved back to October.
Stevi Stevens, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Awareness Network, said she was not alarmed that fuel has been shipped to the site.
"What concerns me is when they start to load it," she said.
Kansas City Power and Light Co. also owns 47 percent of the plant. The remaining 6 percent is owned by Kansas Electric Power Cooperative Inc.
Wolf Creek is scheduled to begin commercial operation late next spring.
Larry Weaver/KANSAN
test the nuclear weapon-carrying "White Train," which uses the tracks when it goes through Tokeka.
Members of the Topeka Ecumenical Peacemakers join others for a vigil near the Santa Fe and Amtrak roadtracks to pro-
By MARY ALICE LEARY
Nuclear demonstrators hold vigil
Staff Reporter
Sunday was the Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, and over 100 people from the Kansas City Lawrence and Topeka areas for silent reflections, benedictions and music.
The vignil was part of a nationwide event, said Joe Myzer, co-founder of the Topeka Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament. Similar routes were planned around various routes the train was believed to travel.
Railway looked on, the group that gathered in front of the Amtrak terminal at 4th and Adams streets was protesting the transport of nuclear weapons on the "White Train."
But it was no ordinary church service.
As security guards from the Santa Fe
group, and said that the "White Train," which carries nuclear warheads across the country, had already carried 100 nuclear warheads from Amarillo, Texas, where they were manufactured by the Pantex Corp. to a Trident nuclear submarine base in Bangor.
CONNIE REYNOLDS, chairman of Topeca Ecumenical Peacemakers, led the
Mark Larson, a member of the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice, said that
See VIGIL, p. 5, col. 6
Harry Fakoury shows off an apparatus that he assembled for the glass blowing technique he has developed over the past nine years chemistry department. Fakoury designed the glass tubing by applying at the University of Kansas.
KU glass blower displays intricate art
Staff Reporter
By LORI ELLIOTT
Crouched over a small blue flame, Harold Fakhoury heated a glass tube until it glowed a bright yellow. Pulling it from the flame, he gently blew into the tube until the glass stretched suddenly and popped.
"People have asked me if I ever burn myself," he said. "I tell them that if they ask silly questions they will get silly answers."
Fakhoury said that he made equipment that was hard to find in the open market or was very expensive, saving the chemistry department money and time by using the job done right away.
FAKHIORY IS a state certified glass blower who works in the basement of Malott Hall making glass condensers, intricate tubing, burettes, and micro-flasks for the chemistry department
Small pieces of glass floated in the air like soap bubbles and several pieces landed in his hand.
"You can touch this and it won't hurt you." Fakhoury said.
Fakhoury's workroom in the basement of Malott is full of glass
tubing, corked cylinders, and broken flasks. A large oven, lots of shelf space, and the blow torch where his work centers, surround his desk.
The table around the blow torch is cluttered with different sizes of tubing and flasks. He digs through the pieces until he finds the one he wants.
The 57-year-old Fakhoum first became interested in glass blowing when he met an American traveling through Egypt, his native country, in 1880. He was fascinated with the process of glass blowing and began studying it in Cairo.
THE STUDENT SENATE gave $10,000 of that total last October. The remainder had come from local veterans' organizations such as the American Legion No. 14, 3408 W Sixth, and the VFW Auxiliary, 138 Alabama, local businessman, KU living organizations, and families and friends of those who fought in the war.
DARK GLASSES protect Fakoury's eyes from the flame, which turns a bright yellow as he heats the glass before blowing it.
"I don't blow very hard," he said. "Just barely — like when you're whistling.
"If my table is too tidy, you'll think I have no work to do." he said.
The search for names of former
Salaries in Egypt were low and the political climate at that time made it difficult for people who weren't Muslims, or Arab citizens of hoursay, to work. Most people worked for
The glass blowing coursework was outlined as a 10-year program, but Fakoury said that he finished in 22 months.
HIS BROTHER MET him in New York and brought him to Kansas City. After looking for glass blowing work, Fakhoury found a job in Evanston, Ill. with a company that specializes in the care for use in chemistry laboratories.
Musgrave said that the response to a television segment on the MacNeil-Lehner News Hour two weeks ago, which featured the KU Vietnam Memorial, had been very favorable. The committee has been receiving inquiries from across the country since the segment was said, and the response has raised the total collected to more than $19.000.
After his father died in 1963, Fakhouy asked his brother Donald, a physician in Kansas City, Mo., to sponsor him in the United States. Donald didn't know it there was any chance he would be a United States, but Fakhouy passed his immigration examinations and was ready to come anyway.
the government, so they were not allowed to do any private work.
"IF YOU DID any private work, you had to be very vush-hush about it, and I didn't like that." he said.
Fakhouri said that the poor relations between Egypt and the United States affected his work. He said he had been subjected as a terrorist for the PLO and
"I读 in a journal that there was a glass blower at the University of Kansas who would be retiring, so I sent them a letter." Fakoury said. "They said their glass blower would be retiring in 1975, and that I should contact them when I got into the country."
'My first job here was in the stockroom upstairs, checking out lab equipment to students. I worked with them and the class blower who was going to retire.
New site considered for Vietnam Memorial
By MICHELE HINGER Staff Reporter
And then Fakhoury got a call from KU asking him to come to interview for the glass blowing job.
The effort to build the KU Vietnam Memorial, first scheduled for groundbreaking in late May, lost some ground last Friday as the committee decided to reconstitute the location chosen last February.
The committee planned to begin construction on the memorial as soon as possible, although its fundraising goal of $30,000 had not been met.
was laid off by the president of the company.
"It was two weeks before Christmas and I didn't have a job," he said. "I didn't want to tell my brother, and I kept hoping things would turn out."
THE COMMITTEE MET Friens,
with Robert Cobb, executive vice-
chancellor, to negotiate a ground-
ing settlement in a memorial,
which now may be in August.
See MEMORIAL, p. 5, col. 1
The memorial would be the first student-sponsored memorial of its kind. Under the current site plan it would face the Party Room of the Frank R Burge Union in the Chandler Court, possibly under his sucession, a tom Tom Berger, a member of the Steering Committee.
"IN APRIL, of 1975 he retired, and on May 1, I became the official glass bllower," he said. "I think that I am grateful to have classified glass blower in Kangsa."
Tom Mikkelson, associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, said that Fakhory routinely designed special parts to be used in experiments in the department, with the results of some of the experiments.
The memorial, which would honor former KU students who died in the war or are listed as missing in action, was approved by the Student Senate and by Cancellor Gene A. Budig last October.
John Musgrave, also a member of the Steering Committee, said graduation and summer enrollment had also postponed the ground breaking.
Fakhour said that he expressed himself through the work he does because he is able to help people.
Berger and Musgrave emphasized that the memorial was not a political
BERGER AND MUSGRAVE said response to the memorial had been favorable since Lisa Ashner, Mission graduate student and former student body president, pulled the idea for a memorial out of the files last fall.
"I'm still learning every minute," he said. "I've got to give people the best I can. I feel happy when I'm working — I love my work."
statement, only an overdue recognition of the people who fought in Vietnam.
Amphitheater's owners pleased despite problems
Staff Reporter
Northeastern Kansas concertgoers have a brand new outdoor facility in which to see their favorite artists this summer, and, aside from a few early problems, promoters of Sandstone Amphitheater have called the first week of operation successful.
By JOHN SIMONSON Staff Reporter
Sandstone, located on Wyandotte County land adjacent to the Agricultural Hall of Fame near Bonner Springs, about 20 miles east of Lawrence, was built this spring at a cost of $5 million.
Feyline Presents Inc., Denver concert promoters, have a 20-year contract with the new theater. Kevin O'Neill, of O'Neill Associates, Kansas City public agents for Feyline, said that Sandstone got off to a "smashing start" despite one cancelled show and initial problems with traffic and restroom facilities.
AT SANDSTONE'S debut concert, Alabama and Juice Newton on June 2, the problems of having a
"We'll need to bring in portable johns when we get the bigger crowds." he said. "And we've asked people to try going back State Avenue instead of I-70 in order to avoid the toll booths."
limited number of permanent restroomes and backed up traffic entering I-70 after the show became apparent, O'Neill said.
However, Danny Mientka, Feyline ticketing coordinator at Sandstone, said that eastbound traffic was still being routed onto 1-70 because State Avenue could not handle the post-show volume.
ON JUNE 5, the Beach Boys played to a crowd of about 7,000. O'Neill said The Moody Blues (Nell) estimated at 7,000,10,9,000. O'Neill estimated at 7,000,10,9,000.
Joe Jackson was scheduled to play on June 8, but the concert was rescheduled because of bad weather
A concert which had been set for June 6, learning Dan Fogelberg, was cancelled. O'Neill said that he could only speculate about the
See SANDSTONE, p. 5, col. 2