University, Daily Kansan / Friday, April 27, 1990
11
Soviets recall Chernobyl with protests, strike
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Soviets joined wide-spread protests, a 24-hour telethon and a strike at a factory yesterday to mark the fourth anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident.
The activities were the Soviet Union's largest national commemoration of the 1986 reactor explosion at Cherrodby, and it came after years of state-encouraged passivity on the issue.
This year, the Ukrainian legislature designated yesterday as "Chernobyl Tragedy Day," and its Byelorussian counterpart passed a similar amendment to government bonds in contaminated areas sanctioned demonstrations.
Official reports say 31 people were killed when one of four reactors at the Chernobyl plant, in the Ukraine, caught fire and exploded April 28, 1986. Unofficial reports say 250 died. The blast spewed cesium, strontium and plutonium over a wide area of the Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia and sent a cloud of radioactive gas around the world.
The first two days after the accident, the Soviet Union refused to report it to the outside world and withheld information from its own people on the scope of the contamination.
Residents in the southwestern Soviet regions most affected by the partial meltdown organized demonstrations yesterday to demand better medical treatment, protection from radiation and punishment for officials who covered up the accident's effects, activists said.
In Kiev, the Ukrainian capital 70 miles south of Cheronoby, 70,000 people gathered for Mass outside the 11th century Saint Sophia Cathedral, reported Rukh Press International, a branch of the Ukrainian people's front. In a subsequent protest, drivers stopped traffic for five minutes and honked their car horns, the report said.
In the Byelorussian city of Gomel, most of the 35,000 employees of the GomSelMash industrial complex
staged a daylong strike, said Alexander Korniev, a plant worker.
Their demands included prompt closure of the Chernobyl plant and criminal charges against all officials involved in the cover-up. Three of Chernobyl's four reactors continue to operate.
The Chernoffi Teleton, one of the Soviet Union's first experiences with televised fund-raising, collected some $106 million in rubles after 22 hours, as well as about $4 million in U.S. dollars, organizers said.
U. S. company, telethon Along with money, telthon pledges included donations of radiation-free fruit and 1,100 pounds of honey for children in the contaminated area.
In the Ryelorussian cities of Minsk and Gomel and throughout the Ukraine, tens of thousands of residents gathered for church services and mourning protests, Soviet TV reported.
On the eve of the anniversary, the national parliament adopted a $25 billion program that would involve resettling an additional 200,000 people from irradiated areas.
After the accident, about 116,000 people were evacuated. Some Soviet scientists and politicians have been campaigning for further resettlements. They say 4 million Soviets live on contaminated land.
Many Chernobyl-area residents have complained of inadequate medical care. Cases of anemia, leukemia and cancers have been reportedly rising among people living on contaminated land. Many residents still eat irradiated food because alternatives are not available.
Social and environmental fallout from the Chernobyl accident continue in neighboring countries as well.
ven. In Sweden, which was in the path of the radioactive cloud, authorities reported that fish from about 15 percent of its lakes still are too contaminated to be eaten. It may take 30 years before health authorities clear the lakes.
Book look
A group of graduate students sells books that were donated by the history department and other sources. Proceeds from the sale
Eric Montgomery/KANSAN
will be used to finance a journal of graduate students' theses. The sale will continue today at the east entrance of Wescoe Hall.
'A Chorus Line' to end long history
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — This time, it really is the end of the line. "A Chorus Line," Broadway's longestrunning final — performance tomorrow night.
The evening show, a benefit for the New York Shakespeare Festival, has a top ticket price of $500, and the 1,483-seat Seubert Theater has been selected as the original cast will be in the audience and possibly on stage at the finale.
'In a funny way, we all felt the show wasn't going to close. But now, we're beginning to realize it certainly is going to happen, and I'll miss it. When the show closes, there won't be a Michael Bennett musical on Broadway.'
It also will be a celebration and
remembrance of Michael Bennett,
the man behind the musical, who
died of AIDS in 1987 at age 44.
Tom Porter
stage manager
"In a funny way, we all felt the
going to happen, and I miss it. When the show closes, there won't be a Michael Bennett musical on Broadway."
show wasn't going to close," said Tom Porter, the musical's production stage manager. "But now we're beginning to realize it certainly is
More than 8.5 million people have paid a combined $15.9 million to see the musical on Broadway. The show, which also has been performed in more than 20 countries, has made $38 million in net profit for the festival.
A special performance April 8, Bennett's birthday, raised more than $50,000 for "Equity Fights AIDS."
Missouri lawmaker insists B-2 is essential
The Associated Press
- WASHINGTON — These are tough days for Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton. In the of the stunners supporters in Congress of the B-2 stealth bomber.
The new generation bomber is coming under fierce attack from opponents in the House and Senate, who say the aircraft is just too expensive. One Senate critic called the B-2 a flying Fort Knox.
But to Skellon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the B-2 is the next vital step in maintaining a modern fleet of manned bombers and preserving the nation's three-pronged nuclear arsenal of air, land and sea-based forces.
"If you shut down the B-2 you put the Air Force out of the bomber business by the year 2000," said Sketton, a democrat from the city. "If we had to be the first base planned for the B-2 at Whiteman Air Force Base near Kansas City.
"What people should realize is that every future combat airplane, both fighter and bomber, will be of the stealth variety. They're all going to be expensive because they're designed to evade radar, and a slight adaptation to put the Air Force out of the bomber business."
The Air Force wants to buy 132 of the bombers, which earn the.
"stealth" label for an ability to evade enemy radar. The total cost is estimated at $7.6 billion, according to the NBC News report that include new inflation figures.
The bat-wing bombers are estimated to cost $333-$688 million each, although the Air Force maintains the "fly-away" cost is $295 million excluding research and development military bases to house the planes.
In 1881, the B-2 fleet was projected to cost $32.7 billion.
Budget cutters' target
"I think when members have an opportunity to sit down and focus on how much money is involved and focus on the budget problems, they conclude . . . that we can't buy this," said Rep. Jim Slattery, one of those leading an effort in the House to terminate the bamber.
Because of the cost, the B-2 has become one of the prime targets for budget-cutters in the House and Senate. A group in the House claims to have 205 members lined up to vote to cancel the bomber or who are leasing that direction. Last year, opponents and 144 votes in a losing effort on the House floor to kill the bomber.
Skelton concedes that opponents
Knight-Ridder Tribune News/ PAUL SOUTAR
have increased their numbers this year. To counter the opponents, Skelton and other B-2 supporters have taken to the House floor to deliver speeches to try to explain the need for the bomber and why Congress should continue to buy it. The expenses are being added, the bombers are throwing "information breakfasts" to lobby their colleagues.
Skelton also hopes a review of the B-2 and other aircraft programs by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney will help bolster support for the bomber.
But for a lawmaker who has been
supportive of the military. Skelton is critical of the way the Air Force has handled the stealth bomber.
"The Air Force has not done a very good job in explaining to either the Congress or the American people the capabilities of this airplane," he
"They turned loose with the cost first and had a hearing on capabilities later. But so much of the capability of the B-2 is still classified."
He said the Pentagon should release more information publicly on the performance of the plane.
Proposed defense cuts worry Boeing officials
The Associated Press
SEATTLE — Proposals to cut Pentagon aircraft programs would hurt Boeing Co. and some of its suppliers, although it'so too early to tell how much, Boeing officials said yesterday.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney yesterday outlined to Congress proposed cuts aimed at saving $34.8 billion through 1997, partly by purchasing fewer B-2 stealth bombers and delaying the production of Advanced Tactical Fighters.
Boeing already has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the two programs.
The company is a major subcontractor to Northport Corp. on the B-2, with 10,000 employees in the Seattle area working on the project. It's the largest program for Boeing Military Airplanes and one of the most significant for the entire company, said Military Airplanes spokesman John Kvasnosky.
Boeing also has 850 Seattle employees working on an ATF prototype it is developing with Lockheed Corp. and General
Dynamics.
"I can's speculate in any detail as to what the longer term effects would be," Kvasnosky said about Cheney's plans for the B-2. "If it would mean that we would not recognize the buildup and growth we had anticipated when we set out to do this.
"Obviously, it will have a financial impact on all the suppliers."
Boeing corporate spokesman Russ Young said the company was examining what effects Cheney's proposals might have on Boeing employment but had no immediate estimate.
Cheney's proposals would start with fiscal year 1991.
Boeing lost $479 million in its defense and space segments last year and blamed the poor performance on technical, cost and scheduling problems, total losses of $4.23 billion on sales of $20.28 billion, mainly because of its booming commercial airplane business.
Work is under way through the eighth B-2, Kvasnesky said, and another seven planes are in the pre-production stage.
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