Page 45 - Scrimshaw1979-80

master keys to two dormatorles In addition to these preceutfons; stolen Bill Byrne an~~:~~ha~~c::I~~;t~:~~~n faced ~~:e~u~~r: I~~~s:~ 8 s~~:! ~;; ha~sbo~~a~~p;~::dw~k~n~O::~~; Master master keys during swim team ~::~;na~W~;~e;h:al~~~ea~t~~~rl~: ~~~I~~keys would no longer open ~~~I~;C~d:~f:cted by the locker The theft of a head resident's practice before on the Friday Westminster I Thanksgiving break triggered a publicize the fact that the keys hoped that whoever stole the keys, Department's acknowledgement Police risk. The decision was made not to ~ Although the administration The series of precautionary measures did not know what they could be that hope that had made no definite it stolen were the in keys to protect the property of WMC whoever stole the keys did not (and used for, tfiis conclusion has been progress in recovering the stolen students. the keys would not) learn what they could questioned. prompted school's Durin9 swim team practice on When asked If he thought the decision to permanently change be usedfor. I number of persons forced open laidlaw, explained that It was person who stole the keys knew the locks of all the affected Friday, November 16,an unknown Dean of Housing, Miss Elizabeth what they were for, the head buildings. Studentswill be notified stolen several lockers in the men's locker standard school policy to Increase resIdent replied: "I'm sure they when and where to report to have when school Is had to know." He pointed out that school security room. The list of stolen Items In. their keys re-cut. Dean -Laldlaw cluded some personal belongings, a small amount of cesh and more closed and that much closer at- other lockers that had beenbroken hopedthat the entire process could tentlon then usual would be paid to Into had keys in them at the time: be completed within lOdays. importantly, a head resident's the buildings affected by the theft. but that his ;.vere the only ones WMC Prof. does solar research Weslern Maryland College Number 9 Waste-problem lingers Dave Cleveland thinks he might be able to raise its But Dr. Cross Is hopeful. He lewis Hall, third floor, is an area efficiency up to about 5%. "About ceramic, metal, or glass. Jenifer Ulrey However, as J.M. Dukert writes Accidents have occurred, in fact where many unusual activities 5% efficiency would be com According to J.M. Dukert in his "solid wastes may arrive at in the booklet Atoms on the Move It take place. One of these activities cetetrve.' claimed Dr. Cross, bookret- Atoms on the Move Federal Repositories in different is stated that "several hundred includes the study of small phials "because they (the silicon wafers accidents have been reported, and of blue and clear liquid set in a row for the photovoltalc effect) cost so "everybody agrees that the very forms from the various com- in most cases these resulted In no onthewindowslll. much to produce." The silicon high-level nuclear waste cannot be mercial reprocessing plants, but in diluted sufficiently so that it could each casethey are likely to occupy increase in redtetton. levels at all. The windowsill Is In the office of method now costs $3.00per watt. be released to air or water. It must only about one tenth of the volume No type B containers have ever Dr David Cross of the Chemistry Dr. Cross claims that to be com. be Isolated from man's air supply, of the liquids from which they were -reteasee any recrcecttvnv as a Department He IS researching ceteuve with other torms of power his drinking water, and his food derived." result of fire or impact, and even methods of turning photoelectric generation, the figure must lrn. type A packages have produced energy falling on the phials Into prove to about SO.SOa wett. ~:~~I~r ~:~:tar~~i:~~~eOf~~~ae; m~:~t~Ylil~de~~u:~~Yei~~~~~rfl;;: only minor releases." If an ac. electrical energy. He Is doing The main problem with the renders it harmless." Storage an.d storage or more permanent cident occurs highly trained research on solar energy_ photogalvanic effect is that the transport of. nuclear waste. IS stroage in salt beds. Waste con- Radiological ASSistance Program. The phIals contain a blue dye and back reaction proceeds too broken down Into two categories, tainers are tested under many teams are on hand to deal with Iron Ions.Whensunlight strikes the quickly. Essentially" the iron Ions suchemergencies. eat up the electricity before It can ~:-;!aLthe dye changes to a clear low-level and high-level waste. possible circumstances such as Storage and transport of' state and the Iron becomesslightly be picked up by the wire. Or. Cross High-level liquid waste posesthe whether or not the container will radioactive waste is' constantly more Ionized. When a wire Is run has managed to slow the back greatest problem. liquid waste rupture or cetertcr ete. The being updated. However, though from an electrode in the exposed reaction for some of his phials, but has not been shipped by eilther the practicality of salt beds is also there has been no reports that any solution the wire wIll carry a he believes his main hope for U.S. Atomic Energy Commission subject to a great many tests and Type B container leaks, the Type A current, which could run an progress is In a solar electron or the Energy Research and according fo Dukert they are have refased small amounts of engine. pump. Development Administration. This chosen because "they have lain radiation. The question arises The process involved has been On this pump is separates the is due to the corrosive nature of relatively undisturbed for millions whether or not thesesmaillevelsof known since about 1930.It Is called dye solutions from the iron Ion liquid waste and the fact stated by of years and are likely to remain waste will have any effect on our the photogalvanlc effect. Better solution by a conducting surface. Dukert that "their radioactivity that way. Thick layers of this salt environment. The sophistication of known is the photovo!taJc effect, By separating the solutions, he level Is so high that the liquid could would be good protective shields transport and storage of which uses silicon chipS to turn hopesto prevent the back reaction boll for several decades unless against the radiation of the waste. radioactive waste looks promising, light into energy. The problem from taking place. Dr. Cross en- I cooled continuously. The Federal And salt has a plastic property, so yet there Is stili the possib1l1tyof with the photogalvanlc effect Is thuslastlcally justified his work, experience Governments with that If it were heated- as it would l plutonium wastes at-its facilities relieve the heat stress, but would human error and even a slim error that it hasan efficIency of lessthan sayIng, "Solar Is a clean system. It high-level own bebythewaste-Itwouldnotflowto 1%,so that It actually provides the Is a renewable resource. It will could be crucial when dealing with production shows that liquid radioactive fuse so that the net movement of waste that according to Dukert a energy from less than one In a 100 alwaysbethere." (would of the photons which strike the "half Dr. Cross Is applying for a grant million years a waste can be stored safely if waste would be nil." require) for one kind of plutonium solution. This compares to an from the Energy Research adequate engineering precautions Transportation of high-level (with a half-Ilfe of 24,000veers) to efficiency of about 12% for the Development Administration to are taken and if the tanks are kept waste, like storage, poses the decay to an... acceptable level." photovoltalc effect. help finance his research. under constant surveillance." problem of trying to create con- The waste products with shorter tainers that will prevent leakage of half lives have less stringent radiation into the environment. College leader fired storage and transportation Solidified high·level waste Is standards then do htqh.level transported In Type B packages waste. that have been tested under very Muc::h high-level waste can be intense experimentally controlled Reprinted from Urslnus College the adminIstration will ask a solidified for easier storage. In accidents. These packages are newspaper The Griu:ly federal court this week for an In- tlon then placed the two studenf of- order to solidify high-level liquid tested for heat durability, SAN MARCOS, Texas (CH) - lunctlon reinstating hIm. flcers on disciplinary probation, waste heat treatment is required. -corroston. and under what ex- The former student body president Roy Battles, the former presl- automatically disqualifying them of SouthwestTexas State Universi- dent, and hts vice presIdent were from office, for "failure to comply T:li~i~hwhfe~~e :~~~d~~::ri~~~~~ tremes leakage might occur ty who was removed from office by removed from office for hiring an with direction of university offici- attorney for the student essccre- als acting in their official capaci- Reactor safety doubted tlon. The adminIstration claims ty." Battles says he and his former the two student officers violated a Lee Maxwell meltdown at the Idaho Falls Nuclear Reactor board of regents policy that re- vice president have exhausted ep. Nuclear energy and the nuclear power industry Testing Station on January 1. 1961,in which three quires board approval of any such peals through the university disci- is, for better or worse, effectively halted in its rapid people were killed; the fire at the Brown's Ferry contracts. The students claim the pllnary system and wHl first seek growth by the partial meltdown at Three Mile reactor that knocked out a backup cooling system regents' policy is vague and does to be reinstated In office, then sue_ Island's No.2 nuclear reactor. How nuclear reac- and caused a partial meltdown; and the partial not require prior approval of such The Issue, he says, is the students' tors will be used in the future has yet to be decided meltdown at the Fermi NO.1 breeder reactor near transactions. righ to retain legal counsel with by the federal government. Detroit, which became the subject of the promiyent The student association orlolnal- donated funds. He will also chal- The biggest question raised by TMI involves book by John Fuller, How WeAlmost Lost Detroit. Iy contracted the attorney In 1978 lenge the reasonableness of the reactor safety: What are the chances of something The causes of almost all of the misshaps, can be and the contract was renewed, to university'S dIsciplinary system. gOingwrong at a reactor that could endanger those. attributed either to human error or negligence, bad be financed by a private donation, The American Civil Liberties who live near them? The answer to thitrquestion designing of the reactor or its controls, some sort of by Battles this summer. In Sept- Union-coordinated sulf, saYs Bat- will help determine whether nuclear power is worth equipment malfunction, or any combination of the ember, university adminIstrators ties, will also nam.e several ad- using to generate electricity. But there is no simple above. All these have been to some degree ordered the student officers to ministrators Individually. "We answer to this question, and many times the answer dangerous, but the three mentioned about and TMI cancel the contract but Battles want them to see that they can be is not evenc1ear/ have posedthe greatest danger so far to the people claimed he no longer had the held personally liable for violating According to published reports the partial living near them. authoritY to do so since the full stu- our civil rights of free assocla- meltdown at TMI was apparently caused by The danger comes from the possibility of a full dent senate ;,ad confirmed hiS tion." negligence on the part of the operator, Metropolitan reactor meltdown. If it had occured, in any of these Edison, poor design on the part of the plant designer instances, it would have involved the uranium and builder, Babcox and Wilcox, and was com- reactor fuel, which generates great amounts of both SPECIAL plicated by human misjudgement on the part of the heat and radioactive particles, becoming so hot operating technitions and later by the Nuclear (because of some sort of malfunction, human or Regulatory Commission investigators on the scene. mechanical) that it would turn-itself from a solid NUCLEAR POWER ISSUE There have been,according to onesource, "a long into a liquid. The fuel would then fall through the list of nuclear misshaps, big and small." Three of ::~to;na~paratus and into the pool of water under the most major accidents prior to TMI were: a core