Page 2
THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1977
New play not really ‘obscene
llnq"'" 1
W. Germany’s nuclear problems
By GUNTER HAAF
HAMBURG, WEST GERMANY
—One clay in December 1975, two
men claiming to represent an oil
company persuaded a farmer’s
widow in Lower Saxony, in the
eastern part of the country, to let
them explore for petroleum under
her land. The deal turned out to be
a serious setback for the West Ger
man nuclear industry.
Four neighbors, investigating the
credentials of the men, discovered
that their objective was not oil. They
intended to probe a thick under
ground salt layer ideal for the dispo
sal of radioactive waste. If found
suitable, the site was destined to be
come one of the world’s biggest nu
clear waste dumps.
Residents of the area, hostile to
the project, protested to the state
government of Lower Saxony. The
project has consequently been
shelved, at least for the moment.
As a result, the courts have ban
ned the construction of new nuclear
power plants until the problem of
burying dangerous atomic leftovers
can be resolved. So the West Ger
man nuclear energy program has ef
fectively been halted.
The project for Lower Saxony, as
originally conceived, would have
dealt with the sensitive issue of nu
clear reprocessing and waste dispo
sal. It called for the construction of a
huge reprocessing plant on top of an
atomic waste burial site. In this
way, radioactive residue would pass
directly into a nuclear cemetery se
cure against terrorists, technical
failure and human error.
Experts have been experimenting
with the question of nuclear waste
for years. Pilot installations were
built at the National Research Cen
ter at Karlsruhe and over an old salt
mine south of Brunswick. But the
Lower Saxony facility, scheduled to
cost $4 billion, would have dwarfed
these experimental efforts.
Its proposed reprocessing plant
would have been able to handle
1,400 tons of highly radioactive ma
terial annually. The nuclear dump
in the subterranean saline formation
was expected to absorb 3,500 cubic
feet of the most dangerous nuclear
waste by 1990.
The enterprise was complicated
from the start by the issue of financ
ing. Under West German law, the
government is obligated to assure
that nuclear waste is safely treated,
but private industry is supposed to
pay for actual disposal projects. This
led to tough negotiations between
the government and nuclear energy
firms over money.
At the same time, the plan be
came entangled in political conflicts
between the central government
run by the Social Democrats and
the state government of Lower
Saxony under the control of the op
position Christian Democratic
party.
Added to all this was the discov
ery by the farmers of Lower Saxony
that their region would be the loca
tion for a stupendous nuclear opera
tion. Their protest has not only de
layed that project, but it has
triggered opposition to other nu
clear developments, and the na
tionwide debate on the subject has
now become polarized.
The brunt of this opposition,
which emerged last year, hit West
German proponents of nuclear
energy at an inopportune moment.
The industry, which had just signed
a $5 billion contract to provide
Brazil with eight reactors and other
atomic facilities, was coming under
pressure as a consequence of official
American attempts to halt the pro
liferation of nuclear technology to
potential producers of bombs.
During his recent trip here. Vice
President Walter Mondale stressed
in talks with West German Chancel
lor Helmut Schmidt that the Carter
administration is especially hostile
to the spread of nuclear technology.
This pressure from the United
States has been critical, since West
Germany’s nuclear industry had ex
panded its capacity to manufacture
reactors not only in hopes of supply
ing rapidly growing domestic needs
but also in order to export nuclear
plants. Now the prospect of di
minished foreign sales aggravated a
declining internal market.
Some years ago, when nuclear
energy programs were still in the
blueprint stage, it was expected that
they would furnish West Germany
with 25 per cent of its electricity by
1980. Present estimates are that 13
to 15 per cent of the country’s
power will be nuclear by that year.
The slump is due in large mea
sure to the activities of citizen
groups that have succeeded in
focusing the attention of the public
on the safety and environmental
hazards involved in nuclear energy
production.
Last November, for example,
police clashed with demonstrators
protesting against the construction
of a nuclear power plant at Brok-
dorf, in the state of Schleswig-
Holstein not far from here.
The press sympathized with the
demonstrators, and a state court
ruled a few weeks ago that the plant
could not be built without guaran
tees that its nuclear waste could be
buried in the Lower Saxony project,
which has also been postponed be
cause of protests in that region.
Similar demonstrations have
taken place in the city of Hannover
to protest against plans for a nuclear
waste project in the Ems Valley.
This opposition has held up the con
struction of other reactors in other
parts of the country.
Chancellor Schmidt is committed
to the development of nuclear
energy. But because building per
mits are granted for nuclear installa
tions by state governments on a
step-by-step basis, the over-all plan
can be stopped by one obstacle
along the line—as, indeed, it has
been.
Until recently, there seemed to
be a light at the end of the tunnel for
West German advocates of nuclear
power. But now, it appears, the
light is red.
Haaf writes on scientific and
technological issues in West Ger
many.
Slouch
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Htant
Editor:
I would like to point out an inac
curacy in the article in Wednesday’s
Battalion entitled “New Playwright
is Born.” I am that “playwright.”
The inaccuracy was not, I think, a
malicious misrepresentation, but
was nonetheless misleading.
The article said that I “admitted”
that there was “quite a bit of obscen
ity.” I never said that, and it is sim
ply not true. Here Comes th’ Rain
is not an obscene play. There is no
nudity or perversion in it. It is a
play about life and love and the pur
suit of meaningful happiness.
What I did say was that there is
quite a bit of strong language in the
script. (There is less strong language
than there was in One Flew Over
The Cuckoo’s Nest.) My dad, the
Baptist Preacher, has an especially
low tolerance for swearing, espe
cially if you say “God —. ”
Which, I think you’ll agree, is a
horse of a very different color from a
play so obscene that the play
wright/director’s father would walk
out on it.
I do recommend parental discre
tion regarding the attendance of
young children, but only concern
ing the use of language which is
MUCH milder than you 11 hear in a
dorm or locker room.
Finally, I am grateful to The Bat
talion for their positive and coopera
tive attitudes. Thank you, you’re
good Ags.
—Beau Sharbrough, ’76
Take advantage
of art offerings
Editor:
A student today most likely
comes to college to prepare himself
with training necessary to acquire a
practical occupation, typically, an
eight-to-five job. But is that all Phone
offers — meeting expenses, j
a second car and maybe a vi
home?
Thank Perfection, No! There}
languages, histories, phi
and the abstract sciences. ’
liberal arts. Add music, visualm
forms, literature and dance, anc
have fine arts.
Liberal arts seek to pro
understanding of human cu
while the fine arts try to irn
supplement or counteract theujJ
of nature. Together, liberalandy
arts add color and meaning toaiy
dividual’s otherwise routine woilif
The arts are the soul of many
cause he protrays himself in his ait |
Therefore, I believe any
student who fails to insert
form of the arts into his edurafrj
curriculum excludes himself hJ
the joy of discovering his plate|
human culture.
— Pamela Elmore il
Science-fiction writer prolific
By JOHN TYNES
If you think you’d be able to spot
Frederik Pohl on the street just be
cause he’s a science fiction writer,
you’re wrong. He looks and talks
just as normal as anyone else.
But underneath the normal ex
terior is a personality that has estab
lished Pohl as a major figure in the
science fiction world.
He is author or co-author of more
than 50 books and is the only person
ever to have won the Hugo, science
fiction’s top award as both an editor
and as an author.
He has edited more than 30 an
thologies, contributed to more than
200 periodicals, made more than
1,000 lecture appearances and more
than 600 appearances on radio and
TV. He is science fiction editor for
Bantam Books.
Pohl is the guest of honor at Ag-
gieCon VIII, the science fiction
convention being held at Texas
A&M this weekend. In an interview
yesterday evening, he discussed
some of his feelings and ideas about
science fiction.
Science fiction is the only type of
fiction that is growing “because it’s
more fun to read than other kinds of
fiction,” Pohl said.
He also said that science fiction is
one of the few types of fiction to deal
directly with reality.
“It’s a literature-change and the
reality of the present is change.
Things change very rapidly, at an
accelerating rate.”
The tall, soft-spoken Pohl said he
thinks science fiction is achieving
wider acceptance now than it used
to.
“I think most people still think it s
weird...with some justification, he
said. “But I think a lot of people
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Frederik Pohl
have come to consider it a lot more
respectable than they used to.
“For my tastes, I think it’s a little
too respectable, he added with a
smile. “It was more fun when it was
vulgar.”
Pohl said a lot of writers begin to
worry about their image too much
as they are taken a little more se
riously.
“The more self-conscious you are
about it, the harder it is.”
He has had a long history of in
volvement with science fiction.
“I started off reading science fic
tion when I was ten, started trying
to write it when I was 12. I wrote a
poem when I was 15, it was ac
cepted when I was 16, published
when I was 17 and paid for when I
was 18. That was my first sale.’
Another smile, “I didn’t waste the
time going to college. I’ve taught at
some colleges but I never attended
one.”
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Special
He said he doesn’t think a college
education is essential to a writer for
success.
“The important thing a writer
needs to do is write. There’s no sub
stitute for it,” he said. “Talking
about it won’t do it, planning to do it
won’t do it, thinking about it won’t
do it.
“I don’t think anyone ever be
comes a successful writer unless it is
just not possible for him to organize
his life without writing.’
Pohl has new books and stories in
the works all the time.
“I do my very best to make sure
that every day of my life, I put four
pages on paper.”
He added later, “I usually have
six or eight projects going at a
time.”
His latest book. Gateway, is
scheduled to be released today. He
said the reviews he has received on
this book are his best ever.
He has never had any problems
finding new ideas for stories, he
claims.
"1 don’t know where I g
ideas. They come from ever)
They come from things I’vereaJi|
conversations I’ve had or sometl®
they come from experiencesW
had or things people have toldm
from scientific developments thllj
read about or hear about from si
scientist or whatever.”
Pohl said trends in science tel
are hard to spot because w(
writers are continually looking
something totally new.
"I can’t say what’s hap
science fiction, but tomorroworli
next day, somebody’s going top
lish a new kind of story that
body ’s ever thought of and it’s g
to start all the other writers thinl
in those terms and that’s the(
tion it’ll take for a while.”
Science fiction does reflect i
kind of thinking that’s goingo
the world,” he said. -
Pohl will give a speech Saturi
at 1 p.m. in Room 206 MSCentils|
“Remembering the Future.’
The Battalion
Opinions expressed in The Battalion arc those of the
editor or of the writer of the article and arc not neces
sarily those of the University administration or the
Board of Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-
supporting enterprise operated by students as a uni
versity and community newspaper. Editorial policy is
determined by the editor.
^ v LETTERS POLICY
U’ttCfs (p the editor should not exceca TOO not'ds
-and (n^e-(*ubjee^to-4ieing-< ut-to that length m less ij,
longer: The editorial staff reserves the right to edit
such letters and does not guarantee to publish any
letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address oj
the writer and list a telephone number for verification.
Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor,
The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building,
College Station, Texas 77843.
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Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25
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Station, Texas.
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
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Editor Jerry Ni
Managing Editor JamesAii
Assoc iate Managing Editor Rusty Cali
Assistant Managing Editor Mary Hesih
Features Editor JohnW Ty
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Photography Director KevinVe
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Rossi, Lee Roy Leschper Jr., Jan Bailey,Darraj
ford
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! Mik(«
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Ward. Director of Student Publications: CiM
Cooper.
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