Carter hints evacuation as bubble shrinks
From the Kansan's Wire Services
HARISBURG, Pa—Engineers slowly shrank a potentially explosive gas bubble in the reactor of the crippled Mile Island nuclear plant yesterday as President Carter went to the plant and suggested that a precautionary evacuation may be necessary within a few days.
A spokesman for the utility that runs the crippled powerhouse said last night that the bubble, which had measured as high as 1,800 cubic feet at times, was gauged as low as 222 cubic feet yesterday.
"It's now back over 400 cubic feet, but that just means we've got a very imprecise method of measurement," said George Troffer, manager of generation quality for Metropolitan Edison, which owns the plant. "It stops up and down, but the trend is definitely downward," he said.
CARTER, A FORMER nuclear engineer on a Navy submarine, said that if an evacuation became necessary, it would indicate a change is being made in the cooling system.
"Radiation is being monitored throughout this area and any trends toward increase in radiation will be reported to me," he said. "At the present time, the reactor core is ideal stable. However, within the next few days, important decisions will be made on how to bring it to a cold and stable state."
Carter promised "a thorough inquiring" into the accident and said he will "be personally responsible for informing the American people about this pari-
cipient incident and the status of nuclear safety in the future."
During their brief visit to the control room, Carter and his wife were protective yellow plastic boots and carried a dosage meter to record exactly to how much radiation they had been exposed. An official of Metropolitan Edison said radiation readings in the room were "almost zero."
A White House spokesman said the Curtains had not worn more protective clothing because the air in the building was too hot.
AN ESTIMATED 50,000 persons have fled the Harrisburg area since Wednesday's accident touched off the first of a continuing series of low-level radiation leaks.
"extra precaution" against possibly radioactive dust on the floor.
Local officials in the area of the plant readied contingency plans for such an evacuation and said that arrangements were nearly complete for moving patients from persons into institutions such as hospitals and jails.
Carter warned residents that an evacuation might be necessary and urged them to follow official directions if it happens. The president said that if the fire "all of us want the error on the side of safety."
Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburg said in a statement that schools within five miles of the plant should remain closed today. He said state government was investigating the case, but with generous leaves forced for 'abentures'.
"We'd like to have things in shape," said Francis Hee, commissioner of Carroll Town, east of the plant. He said a thousand copies of a public notice had been distributed yesterday. The order had been distributed yesterday.
"All the rumors have been checked out and so far there is nothing positive."
The FBI stayed busy checking out "around a hand-donor runners" of attempted or threatened sabotage at the crippled power plant but confirmed none of them, a spokesman said.
Meanwhile, in California, Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. asked the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to a "precautionary and temporary" closing of a stochastic plant near a near duplicate of the stricken plant near Harshburg.
The Rancho Seco plant, near Sacramento, should be closed until the causes of the Three Mile Island incident are satisfactorily identified. Brown said in a telegram to the NRC.
Brown's concern about nuclear power plant safety
was echoed by consumer advocated Ralph Nader, who predicted that the radiation accident at the Three Mile Island plant would spell the end of nuclear power in this country.
"People at last are getting accurate information about the dangers," Nader said.
IN AN INDUSTRY devoted to stringing safety features and voluminous contingency plans, the dangerous bubble lodged in the roof of the reactor is emergency the emergency planners didn't anticipate.
The crisis caught nuclear technicians off guard. They had not anticipated such a bubble, had not designed the reactor to handle it, and had not planned how to deal with it.
"It's a new twist. . . It is not a standard assumption." conceived, "con关勤丹 Denton, operations chief of
The bubble was being slowly depleted by letting the gas dissolve in the constant circulating coolant stream.
Slaff photo by BARB KINNE
Apartheid Protesters
About 150 students listen to speakers Friday during a rally against apartheid in front of Strong Hall. The rally was sponsored by the KU Committee on South Africa.
Black students join anti-apartheid cause
Staff Reporter
By LAURIE WOLKEY
The Black Student Union publicly announced its support of the Committee on South Africa at the "Rally Against Racism" in front of Strong Hall Friday.
The Committee on South Africa contends that the Kansas University Endowment Association's investments in the university are based on the country's official racial segregation.
The crowd cheered as Tony Hunter, a member of the Black Student Union, began the rally with, "We support the movement and withdrawal of investments in South Africa."
The rally, sponsored by the committee, also had the support of the International Club and Latin American Solidarity.
THE RALLY, which began at 11:30 a.m. drew a mixed crowd of angry activists and curious observers.
Laird Oik, spokesman for the Committee on South Africa, told the group, "In 1973, the United Nations said South Africa was guilty of crimes against women." It has the Endowment Association invests there, they are investing in apartheid."
It began with several songs from "Tofu Teddy and the Brown Rice Cow People," a local five-member band.
Mongane Wally Serote, an exiled South African poet and the keynote speaker at the opening of the Africa Summit, a military state; IBM, GM and many other United States' firms do not help, as she does.
About 150 people listened as speakers called for the divestiture of investments by the Endowment Association.
Serote read poetry that expressed pain and hope for the future of South African blacks.
"It is when there is no hope, that hope begins to walk again." he read.
AFTER SEROTE'S presentation, Hunter pointed to Strong Hall and said, "When you hear poems like that from a man who has been there and then you
'See related story page six
hear what they are saying, you can't help but get angry."
However, the Endowment Association maintains that American investments in South Africa influence the South African investment toward more racially equal policies.
"Some of you were surprised to learn that the KU Endowment Association has raised $10 million in corporations with holdings in institutions shouldn't be surprised. This University has a reputation for its antipathy towards civil and human rights," he said.
The invitation said, "We feel that you have a responsibility to explain your policy to the members of the University and that you cannot promise you a sympathetic audience but we will guarantee your voice and speak your right to be heard."
Last week, the Committee on South Africa sent Todd Seymour, president of the Endowment Association, an invitation to speak at Friday's rally.
"I implicit in our policy is the contention that such companies are materially contributing to the betterment of black business." The association said in a recent statement.
Some members of the crowd carried signs and banners at the rally saying, "People, Not Profits" and "We Don't Want Bloody Money."
Ron Kuby, a member of the Academic Freedom Coalition, also spoke to the group.
HOWEVER, SEYMOUR said, "No I'm not participating in that type of talk. You cannot make any decisions that way."
"One thing we can do is rally, to demonstrate our anger and force the administration to take heed to our words. We need to address the problem in nonviolent civil disobedience."
Monday, April 2, 1979
KUBY LATER led the crowd in shouts
See RALLY back page
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Vol.89.No.122
KANSAN
Although local anti-nuclear activists are not glitting over news of radiation leakage and the threat of an explosion at a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant, they are planning to use the incident to bolster their case.
By JUDY WOODBURN
Harrisburg prompts pardon plea
staff Reporter
Trouble at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Harrisonburg, Pa., started late Wednesday when the cooling system of the nuclear core malfunctioned and radioactive gases escaped into the atmosphere. More recent Friday a Friday to reduce pressure in the plant
About 50,000 people have fled the Harrisburg area since Wednesday. Preschool children and pregnant women were advised to leave the immediate area, because of the risk of radius of the plant were instructed to remain inside, with their doors and windows closed.
PLANS FOR A mass evacuation of the area were drawn up, but have not been completed.
Tim Miller, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas, said Saturday that in light of the Harrisburg incident, he would request an official护带 for 36 persons arrested against the police against against the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant.
Miller was one of 10 Lawrence residents arrested during the demonstration against the Iraq war.
near Burlington. He said he would write to
John, John Carlin immediately to request the
"Everyone ought to be pardoned," Miller said. "Now people will see that what we've been saying is true, and I feel certain that everyone in the country who has been arrested for nuclear protest will be pardoned."
MILLER SAID that what was happening,
in Harrison was "to spoopy for an
adult."
Chris Mecham, 94th's Rhode Island SI., who had been arrested and pleaded not guilty to charges made during the trial, would request an official pardon from Garlin.
Mechan was one of five persons found guilty in a trial March 23 on charges stemming from the January protest. The accused had said they planned to appeal the charges.
"I felt discouraged after the trial," Mecham said. "But this will make people more aware of what we've been saying all along."
Mecham said the Harrisburg incident prompted local nuclear protesters to schedule a demonstration April 9 and 10 in Burlington.
The quality of construction of the concrete base for the nuclear vessel has been an issue at Wolf Creek. Nuclear protesters have sought revocation of the construction
license for the plant, which is scheduled to begin operation in 1983.
BUT AFTER NEWS of the Harrisburg accident, some nuclear protesters in Lawrence now say they have an additional weapon that they about the safety of the Wolf Creek project.
According to a report Saturday by the Kansas City Times, Wolf Creek will have a pressurized water cooling system, as does the crippled Harrisburg plant.
"We're trying to make people aware of this similarity," said Pat Slick, who will start graduate work in religious studies this fall. Mr. Slick was in the Burlington protest in January.
Sibs, whose barn and family are in Barrisburg, said he had left to come to KU. He also went to the University.
He said members of his family had not evacuated their home and he was concerned that they were not aware of the danger that faced them.
"The they believe the government, the plant manager and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that everything's okay," Shiek said. "The problem is that most people need a nuclear accident and radiation when it spills. They just don't realize the dangers."
CARLIN, HOWEVER said that, so far, Kamans had nothing to fear at Walt Creek. He also said the incident increased his awareness, safety precautions be taken at the plant.
Vic Poirier, a spokesman for the Kansas City Power and Light Co., said the Three Mile Island plant had been built before 1973, and since then, many design changes had been made in nuclear power plants. One of them is in which gasses were vented from the plant.
He said that KCP&L, which is building the Wolf Creek plant in cooperation with Kansas Gas and Electric Co., would get an analysis of the problems at the Harrisburg plant and make any necessary design changes in the Wolf Creek plant.
Hobart Woody, KU nuclear reactor operator, said that he was not concerned with the possibility of an accident similar to that at Harrisburg happening at Wolf Creek.
"Everything that calls for technology and advancement involves some danger," Woody said, "People feared electricity when Franklin discovered electricity. Cars were invented and people got killed in accidents," he added, backward. We've got to have nuclear power.
"I DON'T THINK people are too afraid of nuclear power. They just don't understand
Russell Mesler, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, said he thought the Harrison incident would only increase the confidence in nuclear safety precautions.
This demonstrates that we can have See REACTION back page
Some dryers blow a threat of cancer
By LESLIE GUILD
Staff Reporter
If John Travolta had known what consumers are now learning about blow dryers, he might never have stood in front of the microwave Nigel Pevera and used one to dry his hair.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission learned last week that private oil companies in Vermilionville, Md., had found that hand-held dryers, medium called blow dryers, dryers with metal knobs.
Asbestos, which is used as an insulator in the dryers, has been linked to an increased risk of lung cancer and other serious conditions. The commission's Kansas City division, said Friday.
The safety commission issued a special order that summoned nine manufacturers to appear at a meeting Thursday in Washington, Baxter said.
THE MANUFACTURERS are Schick,
Conair, Hamilton Beach, Clairol, Norelc,
Sunbeam, General Electric, Gillette
and American Electric Corp.
"These manufacturers make up about 90 percent of the blow dryers sold on the market," he said. "What we hope to learn from them is the names and model numbers of any of their products that have been made with asbestos."
However, the local Penney's, 830 Massachusetts St., was selling the dryers yesterday, although a clerk said the store was aware of the recall by its national of-
Also on Thursday, national offices of J.C. Penney Co., Inc. and Montgomery Ward and Company, said they had ordered suspension of sales of the drivers in question.
"The dryers are still sitting there," she said. "We haven't been instructed by our staff yet."
The manager was not available for comment.
"We do consider asbestos a potential threat to consumers," he said. "Tests have shown asbestos to be linked with forms of lung cancer."
The dryer models being studied were removed Friday from the shelves at Montgomery Road, 23rd St. and Ousdahl Road, a sales clerk said yesterday.
Susie Hanna, with the Lawrence Consumer Affaires Association, 819 Vermont
ST, said the association had received no inquiries or governmental warnings about
Hanna, a consumer representative, said the association could not tell consumers to ask for refunds on the dryers until an official statement was started by the Product Safety Commission.
But Baxter said the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission would not recall the products until it had completed its studies, and that the products endanger consumers.
He said the private research by EMV Associates had resulted from tests commissioned by an NBC television affiliate, which had tested new and used models independently and found one in five emitting wireless signals, such, if inhaled, could endanger consumers.
Baxter be expected the commission's testing to be completed within a month.
HE SAID the dryer was recalled only if the amount of asbestos fiber wan at a
Baxter said no level of asbestos emission has been established as dangerous by the government.
He also said that if dryers were recalled, all manufacturers would be required to replace them.
He said there were about 100 products containing asbestos being sold.
Baxter said the government was investigating the use of asbestos in other buildings.
Other Lawrence businesses concerned with the findings include a hair salon.
Debbie Daniels manager of Hairbenders, 1919 W. 24th, said she would stop the use and sale of blow dryers if they were recalled.
"I suppose I have no other choice than to stop using the dryers," she said. "And I'll stop selling the brands that are recalled. I guess it's a lucky thing that hair styles are currently going toward the natural dry look."
Bella Speaks
Staff photo by BARB KINNEY
Bella Abzug, a former U.S. Representative, spoke to about 1,200 people Friday evening in Hoch Auditorium. Abzug was sponsored by the Intercultural Association of Women