Tuesday, November 21. 1978
University Daily Kansan
Regulations limit waste field radioactivity
Bv MARK SPENCER
Staff Reporter
Once every two months, a truck leaves the KU Nuclear Reactor Center loaded with boxes marked 'radioactive materials.' The truck destination is a small field in Atlanta.
The field is KU's radioactive materials burial ground, low-level radioactive materials buried ground.
When discussing the burial ground, officials continually stress the waste has to be disposed of.
Benjamin Frieden, director of radiation safety for KU, said the burial ground was used to dispose of material left over from construction. The material is as absorbent paper and rubber gloves.
The nature of the experiment, Friesen said, requires that "radioactive material be so small it could" possibly have any effect on the biological organ it was used on."
The KU Medical Center has a burial ground adjacent to the one the Nuclear Reactor Center uses, where it disposes of similar material.
Student lifted to KC by first Life Flight
Cutting through the frozen dusk sky, the Life Flight helicopter made its first visit to Wakatsu Memorial Hospital last night to St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.
The student who was transferred, Brian Connor, Kansas City, Mo., freshman, left Wakins Hospital in the helicopter at 5:52 p.m. yesterday.
His condition was not established at St. Joseph last night, but hospital officials said he had been placed in the intensive care unit and was under observation.
one of Connor's roommates said yesterday that Connor had symptoms after a stroke.
Martin Wollmann, director of health services at Watkins, said the hospital normally would not have called in the ST. Louis helicopter in a case such as Connor's.
"It was the family's decision to use the Life Wollmann," the Die Life was related to the traffic that would have been necessary for the game of the basketball game at Allen Field House.
"We found it necessary that he be moved to a larger hospital, but his condition is not critical. It's not a situation in which we normally would call for the helicopter.
The Life Flight helicopter is not yet licensed to respond to field emergencies in Kansas, but it may transfer patients between hospitals without a license.
Connor is a member of Alpha Tau Omega, 137 Tennessee St. Connor's roommate, Bill Burke, Overland Park sophomore, said, "it appeared to be a bad, bad case of the flu."
"Brian got sick Thursday and didn't go to class on Friday. Then he got really bad over the weekend, and we took him to Watkins Sunday morning," Burke said.
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The level of radioactivity in the material buried in the field is strictly controlled by state regulations. Under an agreement signed by the governor and the old Atomic Energy Commission in 1964, Kansas is authorized all radioactive material in the state.
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Organizations that want to use the radioactive material must be licensed by
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The University is allowed 12 burials a year, each individually regulated as to the level of radioactive material it may contain. The must be four feet deep and six feet near
"Each burial is controlled by a complex mathematical formula," Harold Borchert, a state official of the Department of Health and Environment, said. "Basically, they need to be able to show that we call exempt quantities. These quantities are in commercial products that have been
approved for almost anyone to purchase without a license."
The regulatory commission currently is studying the diminishing supply of land
Montage, a local magazine that combines journalism and fiction, has been approved for distribution from a temporary box in front of the Kansas Union.
Joe Radcliffe, editor of Montage, said yesterday that he was notified that he could distribute the next edition of his magazine in front of the Union Dec. 1-8.
So far, he said, there have been no problems. If someone did find a grave, there
Borchert said the regulations concerning the depth and distance between graves were contingent on someone digging in the plot, which is surrounded by a four-foot chain link fence.
Higher level radioactive materials often are committed to commercial contracts and are taken to land burial sites approved by the Regulatory Commission, Borchert said.
Montage given distribution boxes
"If someone started digging in there, they'd probably only find one cache," he said.
Radcliffe also was given permission to
distribute his magazine from a permanent box outside the Wescoe Deli.
Approval to distribute publications from temporary or permanent boxes is granted by the office of student organizations and offices, which approves campus activities.
Previously, the activity offices has approved the City Moon, the Trading Post and the Shipping Center.
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burial sites and alternative methods of storing or disposing of radioactive material.
About half of the space at the KU burial site has been used, Friesen said. The University, the largest user of radioactive material in the state, has used the site since 1970 to create the burial ground reaches its capacity. KU will have to find a new disposal method.
"Some day in the future, that will be a
problem for the University. The bulk bury has increased over the years, but the level of radioactive material isn't because it's regulated by the state." Frien said.
The material's half-life, the time it takes before the material is no longer radioactive, is called its decay rate.
The material with the longest half-life in bioscience is Carbon 14, which has a half-life of 5,000 years.
He also said, however, "You could put it in a jar on your desk and it wouldn't hurt you."
Registration plan reviewed
Local law enforcement officials yesterday asked the Douglas County Commission to renew a service that would update registration information on vehicle licenses.
about newly registered or transferred vehicle licenses.
Richard Stanniw, Lawrence police chief; Mike Malone. Douglas County district attorney; Eric Dole. He made the request because, they said, a computer now used to store the information
The officials also said it took up to a month for the computer to record information
Ruth Vervynck, county treasurer, said vehicle registration information was provided to the county by the Credit Bureau of Lawrence, 303 W. 11th St., until last January, when the bureau raised the price for the service.
The commissioners told Johnson to check with the bureau and find out what it would cost.
PLAIN TALK FROM ARMCO ON FINDING A JOB:
How about trying more carrots, fewer sticks?
How about trying more carrots, fewer sticks?
Every time government wants to give America something—yet doesn't want to tax people directly to pay it—the result is usually a law requiring business to pay the freight.
Too little gas or oil? Make business remission use coal. Utility bills too high? Make business subsidiary homeowners. Want clean air and water? Make industry install additional layers of pollution control equipment. Want less risk for people at work? Make duplication less likely to occur by remove all human responsibility. The cost of all this is enormous. Wasted money results in inflation and lost jobs.
Companies often grumble about the sock-it-to-business situation. But we *do* get things done when people demand them, and that's more than most instruc-
tions. The fact is we *are the Goose* that Lays the Golden Eggs.
It's not the responsibilities themselves that worry us. It's the way in which new tasks are saddled on our back. We're hit with deadlines. Slapped with fines. Handed detailed orders on exactly how we must try to solve each problem, by people who aren't familiar with science or engineering or finance. We're forced to spend vast sums with no re-recourses. We can't be brought to the prices we have to charge, or we have to eat the costs ourselves - leaving less to spend on research, better products and jobs.
What can America do about this situation?
Wish what our government would use more carrots and
tomatoes?
Plain talk about CARROTS AND STICKS
The power of government is just as great when it's used to pull, rather than push. Why not let government help set America's goals, and encourage others to do the same, with least expensive means to reach them? That one idea could save untold billions of dollars for everybody.
need the Goose The Laws the Golden Eggs is stupid.
need more cooperation – not conflict – between business and government. Just think how much more we’d all done if government would tap the experience and knowledge of business professionals and procedures. Let’s stop making the business system spin its wheels trying to skid through a minfield of友善ly detailed, horribly long-winded and hopelessly obscure regulations. If America will set clear goals and provide a few carrots, business will find the ways to get things done quickly and economically.
Next time somebody says we ought to make business do something, perhaps you would like to ask that person to give you a stick. It’s important to you and the 17,000,000 other Americans who’ll be joining the hunt for jobs over the next ten years.
Good luck in your search for a job.
Let us bear YOUR plain talk about jobs!
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Does our message make sense to you? We’d like to know what you think. Your personal experiences. Facts to prove or disprove your point. Drop a line. We’d like your plain talk. For telling us your thoughts, we’ll send you more information on issues affecting jobs. Plus Armo’s famous handbook. How to Get a Job. A question 50 kwe questions to ask your boss. Answer apart, above the crowd. Write Armo, Educational Relations Dept. U-6, General Offices, Middletown, Ohio 45048. Be sure to include a stamped, self-addressed business-size envelope.