iiany
Day.
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
En guard
The powerful hand darts for
ward and, ah, a hit. This time
the hit comes from a 16-year-old
junior at Consolidated High
School who is already' in Olym
pic competition. See page 12.
Nuclear power plant
Official says reactor ‘safer than yesterday’
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Student Body President Bobby Tucker receives an Agriculture
Senior Merit Award from University President Jarvis Miller during
Monday night’s College of Agriculture Convocation. Tucker was
one of 18 seniors to receive the prestigious award.
g college picks
ream of the crop
United Press International
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The crippled
Three Mile Island nuclear reactor is stead
ily cooling down and the dangerous hy
drogen bubble that blocked final shut
down efforts appears to have shrunk dra
matically, a top Nuclear Regulatory Com
mission official reported Monday.
“I think it is certainly safer than yester
day, said Harold Denton, NRC opera
tions chief at the site, referring to the
bubble which not only blocked final shut
down operations but also posed the risk of
an internal reactor explosion.
Thousands of area residents, however,
remain poised to evacuate if necessary.
Denton said he still wanted to doub
lecheck mathematical equations used to
guess at the size of the bubble before say
ing with certainty the bubble had dramat
ically decreased in size. He said the calcu
lation had been satisfactory while the bub
ble size was steady, but may be flawed
now because it leaves out other vital con
siderations.
“It is going down (in size),” Denton
said. “We just don’t know how much.”
He also reported that general radiation
levels outside the plant were declining al
though radiation inside the concrete con
tainment building surrounding the reactor
were at lethal levels.
He also announced at a news conference
at the nearby Middletown town hall that
the NRC has advised the operators of
seven other reactors using the same Bab
cock and Wilcox cooling system to take
steps to assure their plants could over
come the type of pump failure that trigged
the Three Mile Island crisis Wednesday.
He said some of those reactors reportedly
had been shut down.
He also said federal inspectors were
being sent to each of those power plants.
Engineers at the site continued the slow
process of starting to convert hydrogen gas
in the containment building back to water
to help cool the reactor.
The improved outlook followed a visit at
the plant Sunday by President Carter —
himself a trained nuclear engineer — and
Gov. Dick Thornburgh. They donned
plant, said there was evidence the bubble
“might be disintegrating.”
To remove hydrogen from the surround
ing containment, engineers hooked up
hydrogen “recombiners” to the vents of
the containment building, where the nu
clear core is housed, to start Monday’s op
eration.
The recombiners are designed to con
vert some of the hydrogen gas buildup in
the containment building back into water
by eating it with oxygen — a process simi
lar to the way steam from a teapot is con
verted back into water vapor.
Please see related story, page 7.
bright yellow protective boots, personally
inspected the plant on the Susquehanna
River island and reported the situation
“stable.”
Denton said only two uranium fuel ele
ments in the reactor at midday were over
400 degrees. At the same time Sunday,
readings over 500 degrees were reported.
He said the temperature in the con
tainment dome was 90 degrees and the
pressure was one pound per square inch
below the outside atmosphere, reducing
chances of radiation leaks.
The hydrogen bubble, which developed
unexpectedly, earlier had been estimated
at 850 cubic feet in size. The new esti
mates Monday were that it was 50 cubic
feet.
Earlier, a spokesman for Metropolitan
Edison, part-owner of the stricken nuclear
Students can file
for open positions
There is still time for students to file for
positions in the student government.
Graduate Student Council and two organi
zations.
Because no one has entered these races,
candidates may file for office until 4 this
afternoon in Room 216, Memorial Student
Center.
Campus elections will be Monday and
Tuesday.
Positions in the senate that still need
candidates are:
—education, undergrad and graduate
—engineering, junior and graduate
—geosciences, at large
—liberal arts, senior
—vet school, at large
—Corps, senior
—Spence, Legett and new dorm, at
large
—Hart, Law, Puryear and Cain, at large
—off-campus Ward 1, undergrad (5)
—off-campus Ward 2, undergrad
—off-campus Ward 4, undergrad (2)
On the Graduate Studenf Council, po
sitions that still need candidates are:
—engineering (2)
—geosciences (2)
—liberal arts (2)
—science (3)
—vet med
Two organizations that need candidates
are:
—Residence Halls Association, secre
tary
—Off-campus Students Association,
treasurer
ithe
.top"
By BECKY LEAKE
Battalion Reporter
[Senior Merit Awards were presented to
1 outstanding students in the College of
riculture at the Students Agricultural
onvocation Monday night.
The convocation was part of the Texas
ricultural Conference being held at
xas A&M Monday and today.
Also presented was the $500 Eva Sim
ons Potts Memorial Scholarship to
thia Roney of Victoria. The speaker
Grady Nutt of Louisville, Ky.
The Senior Merit Awards are presented
ich year by on the basis of scholarship
tdership, and outstanding contribution
the College of Agriculture.
■ The recipients were Linda Norman of
Ijoydada, Ray Daniels of DeRidder, La.;
J Biomas Paterson of Silver City, N.M.;
timothy Berry of Barksdale; Susie
|filliams of Sabine, Ronald Woessner of
°llege Station; Darwin Anderson of
‘ound Rock; William Kuvlesky Jr. of Col-
e Station; and Bobby Tucker of
Pineola.
Other award winners were Ennis Jetton
of Junction; Diana Van Cleave of College
Station; Ronald Lastovica of Belton; Susan
Cross of Houston; Stephen Seidel of
Rosanky; Donna Steig of Malaysia; Alisa
Howe of Midland; Catherine Blanton of
Irving; and Sharron Sims of Houston.
Dr. Herman D. Brown was named the
outstanding professor in the College of Ag
riculture.
The Collegiate FFA won the Gavel
Award for the technical club having the
highest percentage of members present.
With a narrative full of humorous inci
dents, speaker Grady Nutt said that stabil
ity and commitment are important
whether you’re producing a wheat crop or
building a worthwhile life.
“There is no way you can be successful
and satisfied in your life unless you are
deeply active in the things that really mat
ter.”
Nutt encouraged agriculture students to
apply the knowledge they are learning.
“You have a chance to change the
world,” said Nutt. “Maybe even to save
it.”
Internationals promoting
petition along with culture
By MERIL EDWARDS
Battalion Reporter
Musical instruments, dresses,
scarves and silverware are a few of the
items displayed today in the Memorial
Student Center by 16 Texas A&M
international student groups.
This cultural display is part of inter
national week, which began Sunday
and continues through Friday.
President of International Students
Assocaition Elia Tasca said the purpose
of international week is to expose cus
toms and cultures of Texas A&M’s
foreign students.
“The week was planned to maximize
contact between Americans and inter
nationals through politics, culture and
an exchange of ideas,” Tasca said. “It
gives the internationals a chance to dis
play their cultures with pride. We hope
each side will become more apprecia
tive of each other.”
This week foreign students are also
publicizing a petition against a bill in
the Texas Senate that will raise tuition
for foreign students.
A Special Subcommittee on Higher
Education approved a bill March 27 to
increase tuition, for all foreign students
from $14 to $40. “We have some 300-
400 signatures now,” Tasca said Mon
day night. “We figure we need about
700 to be effective enough to send to
the Senate in Austin.”
Tasca said universities and colleges
cannot gain from the bill. He said if
tuition costs are tripled as proposed,
then Texas A&M’s international
enrollment would drop from 1,100 to
around 700.
“A&M isn’t known for internationals,
though, so they don’t really care,” he
said.
Tasca said Texas A&M is the only
state institution not opposing the bill.
“It’s a special problem here,” Tasca
said, “because A&M cannot afford to
oppose Sen. Bill Moore, the main
proponent of the tuition raise, since
he’s been so helpful to A&M in other
areas.”
Tasca gave two reasons why the Se
nate is receptive to a tuition raise: “A
lot of people are frustrated and an
noyed by the behavior of Iranians so it’s
reflecting on all internationals. Second,
the growing scandal of the admittance
of foreign students without a valid ex
amination of qualifications has caused
some of this feeling.”
Tasca said he sees the bill as an ex
cuse to raise tuition for in-state stu
dents.
“It’s all a merry-go-round effect,” he
said. “The real reason for all this flak is
they want to raise tuition for Texas res
idents and this is just a preview.”
Battalion photo by Colin Crombie
Palestinian Award Maher seems to be enjoying his hookah at the
Texas A&M International Students cultural display in the Memorial
Student Center. Actually, it’s just cigarette smoke that he amuses
passers-by with. Maher is a freshman civil engineer major.