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Friday, May 1, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Crowd protests pact to store radioactive waste in Kansas
By CHRISTOPHER HINES
Staff writer
TOPEKA - Sitting on the steps of the state capitol yesterday, about 750 people cheered and applauded while listening to speakers denounce the possibility of radioactive waste being stored in Kansas.
"We have the power of self-determination." David Ebbert, a Quinter resident, told the crowd. "But we are being asked to give up our self-determination and give it to a large corporation. Is this being responsible to the future of our communities, our state or the future of our children?"
People from across Kansas came to protest the state's involvement in a low-level radioactive waste disposal compact with four other states. The demonstrators included farmers, housewives, children, carpenters and retired veterans. Holding signs painted with political cartoons and slogans, they often stood and cheered as fellow Kansans pleaded to get the state out of the compact.
"If I care so much about my family, my home and my community surely they care about theirs," said Laura Menhusen, a Jewell resident, pointing to the capitol and referring to state legislators. Menhusen is president of North Central Kansas
Citizen's Group, which organized the demonstration.
Minutes before the demonstration began, the Kansas Senate defeated by one vote a bill that would have taken Kansas out of the compact.
The five-state compact is one of a number of compacts created at the request of the federal government to better coordinate and manage the disposal of radioactive waste. The other states in the compact are Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
On April 24, the compact had an emergency meeting in Kansas City, Kan., to discuss a study done by a New York consulting firm. The firm recommended a number of possible disposal sites. About 75 percent of the proposed sites were in Kansas.
"From all indications the compact has very little credibility, if any at all," said State Sen. Ben Vidricksen, R-Salina, a member of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. "Their director came to our committee and did not have answers to most of our questions. Now how are we supposed to trust this organization with materials that could stay radioactive for thousands of years?"
Leaders of the group announced the names of state senators who
voted against withdrawing from the pact and asked those protesting to meet with the senators and persuade them to change their votes.
"If they belong to you, you have to go in there and claim them," said Richie Guerin, a Marshall resident.
However, some senators say that withdrawing from the compact would result in the federal government taking control of radioactive waste diposal in Kansas.
"The federal government proposed this to the states as a way to avoid having a radioactive disposal site in each state." State Sen. Merrill Werts, R-Junction City, who has strongly supported staying in the pact, said after the protest. "If we withdraw, it's not going to solve our problems. The federal government could still legally transport and store radioactive waste in Kansas."
State Sen. Paul Feleciano Jr., D-Wichita, has been a strong advocate of withdrawing from the pact. He told the crowd that Gov. Mike Hayden had not taken the time or energy to study the issue.
"He has put up a smoke screen of disinformation," Feleciano said. "We want some answers, and we want them now."
White supremacists surrender; say they are political prisoners
The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A white supremacist who had threatened to wage a race war and overthrow the government was ordered held without bond yesterday after federal agents surrounded a southwest Missouri mobile home and arrested him with three other men.
Glenn Miller, former leader of the White Patriot Party, Douglas Sheets and Robert Eugene "Jack" Jackson were ordered held in the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners until a hearing could be held Monday on whether they should be returned to North Carolina.
A fourth person arrested, Tony Wydra, was released without being charged, according to a spokesman in the U.S. attorney's office.
The FBI expected to get a warrant
late yesterday afternoon to search the trailer where the men were arrested, said FBI spokesman Max Geiman.
Following the hearing, Jackson told reporters. "We are political prisoners being prosecuted for our religious beliefs."
U. S. Magistrate James England appointed lawyers to represent Sheets and Jackson. He did not appoint a public defender for Miller after Miller said he had $14,000 in cash in a tin can at the trailer where he was arrested.
A trailer park in Ozark, about eight miles south of Springfield, was evacuated at 4:30 a.m. At 6 a.m., the trailer where the four men were staying was surrounded and they were ordered to surrender.
Authorities fired tear gas into the
trailer when there was no response, and the four walked out and were arrested without incident minutes later.
Miller, 46, was found in contempt of court last year for operating a paramilitary organization in defiance of a federal judge's order. He was freed on bail, but his bail was revoked earlier this month, and an arrest warrant was issued after it became clear that he had left Hillsville, Va.
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