CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, September 10, 1992
3
Spiritual search
Holly McQueen / KANSAN
Jay Henderson, Lawrence, United Methodist church minister and president of KU Religious Advisors, assists Don Moffield, Prairie Village freshman, as he signs up for a newsletter outside of Stauffer Flint Hall. Spiritual leaders at KU teach students how to make students aware of the various religious organizations on campus.
Reactor to be dismantled
Planned removal poses no threat to KU students
By KC Trauer
Kansan staff writer
The remains of an inactive nuclear reactor containing traces of radioactive material is scheduled to be removed from campus starting this week.
The reactor is in Burt Hall, which is next to Learned Hall on 15th Street. It was used for teaching and research from 1961 until 1984.
Crews will dismantle the 10 feet by 20 feet metal and cement structure, which contains low-level radiation. The materials are to be disposed at a Richland, Wash., disposal site for low-level nuclear waste.
Chemical Waste Management ENRAC, a Columbia, S.C., company, submitted the successful bid of $299,633 for the project.
"The removal process will pose absolutely no danger to anyone in the area," said Benjamin Friesen, director of the KU Office of Radiation Safety. "We estimate the total content of the radioactive material to be removed to be less than that which might be used in a single diagnostic medical test."
Robert Bearse, associate vice chancellor for research, graduate studies and public service, said the removal process was much like removing asbestos.
"They will encapsulate the area in a big plastic tent and go in with a kind of jackhammer to chip off layers of concrete until they get to a layer with radioactivity lower than regulations," he said.
Officials with the company that is dismantling the reactor expect the work to be completed in November. Afterward, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to inspect the site, terminate the University's nuclear reactor license and clear Burt Hall for other uses.
Bearse said the building would be used for administrative offices and classrooms after the reactor is removed.
The reactor, too small to produce power, was used in experiments where only a small amount of radiation was required, Bearse said.
"The reactor never was a serious player in producing radiation on campus," he said. "That reactor was never powerful enough to create the kind of
radioactivity for most of the experiments on campus using radiation.
The reactor was shut down in 1984 after KU's nuclear engineering and radiation biophysics programs were discontinued in the early '80s. The reactor's fuel, a mixture of water and uranium, was removed in 1986.
Since 1986, part of the building was used as a processing site for the University's hazardous wastes. Workers prepared for disposal of such materials as cleaning solutions and radioactive wastes from experiments, Bearse said.
The University received financing from the Kansas Legislature this year to remove the reactor. Obtaining money for the dismantling was not a priority for the University until two years ago, when the NRC told the University it wanted to decommission KU's nuclear reactor license.
Kansas professor to study presidential debates
By Muneera Naseer
Kansan staff writer
A University of Kansas assistant professor will lead a nationwide study to research how presidential and vice-presidential debates serve as educational tools for voters.
Diana Prentice-Carlin, assistant professor in communication studies, received a $40,000 grant from the Commission on Presidential Debates. She said the grant would allow her to do research in 15 cities across the country including Kansas City.
"We'd like to know whether the debates covered issues that people considered important," she said.
Prentice-Carlin said she previously had not encountered research of this kind.
A group of 10 to 12 randomly-chosen registered voters in each of the 15 cities will watch the debates on television and then respond to questions in a group discussion.
People leading the groups will do a summary of their findings and fax the information to Prentice-Carlin within 24 hours of each debate. A news release will be issued on the preliminary findings of the research.
Beverly Sypher, associate professor in communication studies, will lead the discussion group in the Kansas City area.
Prentice-Carlin said 450 to 500 participants would be involved in the research that would cover three debates.
Tentative presidential debates are scheduled for Sept. 22 in East Lansing, Mich., and Oct. 4 at the University of San Diego. A tentative vice-presidential debate is scheduled for Sept. 29 in Louisville, Ky. If the debates are held as scheduled, Prentice-Carlin
will attend each one and conduct a discussion group from these locations.
She said the grant would help pay for her transportation to the debates, the costs of transcribing 45 hours of taped interviews with the discussion group participants, a small stipend for the participants and the salary for a graduate assistant who would help analyze the data.
Prentice-Carlin said the five-member Neustadt committee, established by the Commission on Presidential Debates, decided yesterday that seven of the 260 third-party presiden
tial and vice-presidential candidates were possible participants in the debates.
The recommendations will be received by the commission's board of directors tomorrow. The board ultimately will decide whom to invite for the debates based on the Neustadt committee's recommendations.
Prentice-Carlin said that although she could not name the candidates recommended by the committee, two of the candidates were women.
"Some of the candidates don't have a vice president running with them. Some didn't file on a party ticket." she
said.
The criteria for the recommendations include:
that the candidate be constitutionally eligible.
Prentice-Carlin said that if Ross Perot had not dropped out of the presidential race, she would have recommended Perot be included in the debates.
that the candidate have ballots in enough states to obtain 270 electoral votes.
that the candidate show signs of national support.
Speaker: Environment not in campaign
Daron J. Bennett / KANSAN
Dee Berry, co-founder of the Missouri Green Party, stresses the importance of third-party candidates in the 1992 presidential campaign.
By Mark Martin Kansan staff writer
Voting for Bill Clinton or George Bush is choosing between the evil of two lessers, said Dee Berry, cofounder of Missouri's Green Party.
"I am very angry, disillusioned and fearful now because I don't think our current politicians represent the people," Berry said in a speech yesterday at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave. She was the featured speaker at the University Forum, a weekly luncheon that provides speakers on various topics of current interest.
Berry spoke to about 25 people about the 1992 presidential campaigns and about her involvement in the Green Party.
The Green Party, which has groups from Mexico to several countries in Eastern Europe, focuses on grassroots efforts to help the environment, reduce military spending and
promote peace. The party has existed in the United States since 1984 and has had several members elected to local offices around the country.
"This Green way is based on the notion that all people are connected to each other and to all life on the planet," she said. "People want to get along, and given a chance, can come up with new and creative ways to solve problems."
According to the Missouri Green Party's 30-page pamphlet, the party favors:
the decriminalization of illegal drugs
- proboluting political action committees and other individuals from fringe groups
- tax incentives to businesses that use or sell ecologically-responsible products.
Berry planned to run for lieutenant governor of Missouri this fall, but she did not receive the required 30,000 signatures to get her name on the ballot. Candidates who are not running on major-party tickets must petition their state to be placed on the ballot. Berry stressed the importance of third parties in U.S. politics.
"Third parties, which often have nothing to lose in elections, can offer new ideas or opinions that aren't talked about by the other candidates," she said. "Third parties can broaden the scope of the debate."
Berry spoke at length about the weaknesses of both presidential candidates.
However, Berry referred to Al Gore's book on the environment, "Earth in the Balance," and said Gore was as green as any Green Party member she knew.
She also criticized the media's coverage of politics.
"I see real danger in a 30 or 60 second sound bite that sells a candidate like a bar of soap," she said. "We need to change the whole process of politics."
Baseball cards and comics become targets for thieves
By Tiffany Lasha Hurt Kansan staff writer
For many years, baseball cards and comic books have sat in shoe boxes in dusty attics, ripening in age and value. Now the old bubble gum cards and nickel comic books are targeted items for theft.
Lawrence comic book and baseball card shops have had customers steal or try to steal collector's items from their stores in recent weeks.
Comic Corner, 1000 Massachusetts St., reported to Lawrence police Sept. 2 that a $500 Spiderman comic book was stolen.
Stuart Shutts, owner of the shop, said that while he was helping a customer in the back of the store, some customers stole an item from a glass case near the front of the store.
He said the comic book was high-priced because only 10,000 copies were distributed, instead of the usual 1 million.
Card and Specialty Nostalgia Shop,
711 W. 23rd St., said baseball cards
were priced based on their age.
"The older the card is, the more valuable they probably are," he said.
Jeff Dolezal, owner of JD's Baseball
The least expensive modern baseball cards cost about five cents each, Dolezal said, and the most valuable are $30,000. Mickey Mauel ropiks a card
Dolezal said merchandise had been stolen from his shop, but nothing valuable had been taken.
To help prevent theft, Dolezal keeps anything of value outside his shop in a safety deposit box.
Leroy Young, owner of Kwality Comics, 1111 Massachusetts St., said he had not had many thefts at his shop. He said the most valuable item stolen from his shop was valued at $20.
"We don't even keep anything valuable on the premises," he said. "If someone wants it or is interested, they have to wait on it."
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Pine Room, Kansas Union
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