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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 1979)
ai The Battalion h\ o i laj] i u nior ! at sti«lVol. 72 No. 142 enter fcf 16 Pages 1 can Wednesday, April 25, 1979 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 AbduVs spread This land, and a good bit more in Brazos County, belongs to someone who isn’t a citizen of the United States. Foreign ownership of U.S. land is drawing a lot of criticism from domestic investors. See page 10. taffi : that t, Ion the| htion, e .”the,ti 5 alrea ?anie( ost two* didn't I year.’’ t exactly J 1 for thejj said,; )utsandfi ALT talks speech lanned by Carter was pi^ itbes[»i( HuntsM‘|' t svittS T rsity tti United Press International WASHINGTON — President Carter is edging open his option to deploy the neu tron bomb to offset the new tactical nu- ear missiles the Soviet Union has begun (deploy in Eastern Europe, according to \ his spokesman, and the president con tinues to assure that there will be adequate protection against cheating in the SALT II treaty. Press Secretary Jody Powell told re porters Carter is “aware of and concerned” navigate concrete canoes By RICHARD OLIVER Battalion Reporter For years. Aggies have proclaimed themselves to be the best in everything, andjnow the Texas A&M University chap ter bf the American Society of Civil Engi neers is out to prove it by racing concrete Banoes. Concrete canoes, you say? According to Tom Hooper, vice-president of ASCE, g concrete canoes is a challenge and a lot pf fun. A concrete canoe is 17 feet long, 32 incnes wide and weighs nearly 200 pounds, said Hooper. The canoe is approx imately five-eights of an inch thick and is manned by two people when in competi- tiori each kneeling in standard canoe rac ing fexrsition. |ver the weekend of March 29-31, the Texhs A&M ASCE won the Texas state jchappionship by sweeping the men’s, [len s and faculty’s divisions of the [petition. eld on Town Lake in Austin, the com- tftion was the preliminary meet to de- hinine who would represent Texas in the jtional championship to be held this eakend in Manhattan, Kan. Tie ASCE was also given the American ■crete Institute’s Construction Award ■he best-built canoes at the competi- ■. BVe did excellent at the state meet,” boper said. “We wiped everyone out. fere pretty excited and optimistic about ■onals. The making of a concrete canoe requires many long hours of work and dedication. Hooper said. “It all involves quite a bit of testing and sampling,” he said. “The canoe is actually built inside a fiberglass mold. A half-inch square mesh wire is shaped inside the mold and reinforced at all the joints. The concrete is then applied by hand. “We did all our testing and sampling in the fall,” he said. “We would do tension testing and sampling using old canoes and when the spring rolled around we got down to fabricating the new ones. From February to the first of March we worked once a week, then in March we were work ing every day.” Hooper said Texas A&M will be repre sented by one faculty team, two women’s teams and six men’s teams at the national competition. He is optimistic about the team’s chances at the meet. “I really can’t say how we’ll do, ” he said, “but we did great at the state meet. A guess now could be a little premature. In any case, it’ll be a lot of fun and I’m sure we’ll make a good showing.” Hooper said the group will leave here Thursday and arrive in Kansas Thursday night. They will practice all day Friday be fore competing on Saturday. “It’s been a lot of work for quite awhile now,” he said, “and now it’s all coming down to this. We’re ready.” Battalion photo by Lynn Blanco I Russell Weniger, a senior civil engineering major, sprays his concrete canoe with a coat of latex paint in preparation for competition. about the SS-21 missile the Soviets are providing troops in East Germany, and views it as part of the Soviet drive to modernize its nuclear forces targeted against Western allies. He recalled that last October Carter au thorized the modification of the Lance missile with the capability of delivering a neutron warhead, but delayed a decision on whether to deploy the weapon. Asked if the controversial bomb is still seriously considered an option, Powell re plied, “You’re damn’ right it is.” Carter was flying to New York today to deliver a major address he hopes will launch a “rational and informative debate” on the strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT II). In the speech, kicking off his all-out ef fort to win ratification of the not-yet- completed treaty. Carter promised a full capability to detect cheating on the terms and warned that failure to approve the agreement could provide the Russians with a strategic advantage in the future, lead to an all-out arms race and encourage a return to the Cold War. “We are confident that no significant violation of the treaty could take place without the United States detecting it,” he said, and declared: “The issue is whether we will move ahead or resume a relentless arms compe tition. That is the choice we face — be tween an imperfect world with SALT II and an imperfect, and dangerous, world without it.” After the speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association, the president was to fly to New Hampshire for a “town meeting” in Portsmouth and a Democratic dinner in Manchester. Powell said the newly deployed Soviet nuclear weapons are under study by the NATO planning group to determine “how to meet this challenge.” “We are continuing to monitor the Soviet nuclear modernization program, with a view toward Soviet restraint,” Pow ell said. “The president’s final decision on enhanced radiation capabilities (the formal name for the neutron bomb) for our nu clear weapons will be afiFected by Soviet behavior. ” “The Soviets are well aware of our con cerns,” Powell said. Some military leaders feel the neutron bomb, which bas power to kill without doing extensive property damage, would be especially useful in Europe as a deter rent to conventional attack. But opponents argue it would lower the threshhold of nuclear war and that the slow and agonizing death through radia tion it inflicts is inhumane. Don't walk on the MSC ‘grass This interesting biological specimen was found growing near the Texas A&M University Memorial Student Center Tuesday. No positive identification has been made yet, but surely some over- enthusiastic horticulture student would love to analyze it. Battalion photo by Roy Bragg Controversial aquatic weed, hydrilla keeps fish population up in Texas United Press International HUNTSVILLE — Hydrilla, an aquatic weed with a reputation for choking lakes and fouling outboard engines, protects fish and can prevent the premature decline of Texas lakes, two Sam Houston State Uni versity researchers report. The controversial plant might be best controlled by mechanical harvesting rather than chemical treatment or use of weed-eating fish, biologist Darrell D. Hall and graduate student Jack Killgore said. “Hydrilla seems to be very good for the fish populations, so from a fisherman’s point of view, it’s good,” Hall said. “Developers and marina operators don’t like it. It grows along the shoreline, gets caught in boat props and you can’t swim in it. ” Studies by Hall and Killgore at Lake Shutdown by May 2 Nuke plant cooling off United Press International HARRISBURG, Pa. — After a month of efforts by teams of top scientists, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tuesday announced a specific timetable designed to bring the crippled Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to a safe shutdown by May 2. Victor Stello, head of NRC operations at the Metropolitan Edison Co.-operated nuclear station, where the nation’s worst nuclear accident occurred March 28, said the shutdown would result because of an unusual, improvised plan. Stello said he would declare the plant to be in a “long term cooling condition” — tantamount to a cold shutdown — when the water in the reactor core cooling sys tem was able to circulate by natural con vection. Currently, it is circulating by use of a pump in a process in which a steam generator is being used to draw off heat from the reactor core. Last week the pro cess resulted in a temperature drop of more than 50 degrees. Stello said he did not want to use the phrase, “cold shutdown,” because that would indicate the plant would be brought safely under control by its normal systems. “The activity we are about to undertake is the result of an excellent team of scien tists the licensee has pulled together at the site,” Stello said. Meanwhile, the NRC was expected to decide Tuesday or today whether to tem porarily shut down atomic power plants built by the same firm that constructed the Three Mile Island reactor. In Washington Monday, two top NRC staff experts recommended plants built by Babcock and Wilcox be shut down for a month or so pending a review of their problems. NRC Chairman Joseph Hen- drie said the commission will meet Tues day or today to decide what to do. Harold Denton, the NRC’s director of nuclear reactor regulation, said he would rather wait until more information is studied on possible defects in the plants. Nine Babcock and Wilcox reactors were built, but only four — three Oconee units in South Carolina and Rancho Seco in northern California — are now operating. The other five were previously closed for repairs or maintenance. The shutdown recommendation came from Denton’s deputy, Edson Case, at a staff briefing for the commissioners. “A lot is expected of these operators — a lot more than the present training pro gram provides,” he said. He said he would “feel more comforta ble” if the other Babcock and Wilcox reac tors were shut down pending a full review of their problems, which he said could take “a month or so.” Roger Mattson, director of reactor safety, said he leaned toward Case’s view because operators of those plants have not been trained adequately to handle emergencies. At Three Mile Island, the temperature of the water in the core’s cooling system has dropped below the boiling point of water to a constant 175 degrees Fahrenheit. But because of damage done in the nuclear accident, the NRC is hold ing off on a shutdown declaration until it is repaired. Conroe north of Houston found 12 species of fish feeding on hydrilla. “If the hydrilla were removed from the lake, the fish population would definitely drop, Hall said. “The fish would have no cover so every little fish would be prey to larger fish. The food chain would be dis rupted because fish that eat hydrilla would now have to eat something else or perish. ” Hall said plans to apply chemicals to Lake Conroe at the rate of 50 pounds per acre won’t eliminate hydrilla and could raise a serious problem. He said he was worried about a large dose of chemicals flowing into lakes that supply urban drink ing water systems. Hall said mechanical harvesting was more reasonable because it could be done every two or three weeks during the summer growing season at a cost that would decline over the life of the equip ment. Pistol, peppers stolen in Bryan Bryan Police received a report last Wednesday that a pistol and some peppers were stolen from a Bryan residence. A Bryan resident told police a German Luger pistol and a gallon jar of jalapeno peppers were missing out of her sewing room. She told police she felt someone had walked out with the items while visiting. She said she last remembered seeing the pistol and peppers in the sewing room three weeks ago. There were no signs of forced entry, ac cording to the police report. Over the weekend, the Bryan Police re ceived a total of 174 calls which resulted in 20 arrests. Fourteen of those 20 arrests were for public intoxication. Foreigners invest in B-CS motels This is the first in a series of three stories on investment by foreigners in U.S. business. By KEVIN D. HIGGINBOTHAM Battalion Reporter If it weren’t for his accent and his na tionality, he could represent any South Texas businessman. But it is just those characteristics, and the recent controversy surrounding his business, which set the broker apart from other Texas busi nessmen. He is a foreigner, and his business is helping other foreigners invest in Texas real estate. He would be the first to agree that foreign investment activity in Texas is increasing, but the last to agree that it poses a significant problem to the nation and the state. Although not every foreign investor deals with the broker when buying Texas property, many do because he can relate to them better than many American brok ers. “The reason they come to me is because I’m someone they can trust, he said. “They know me and can trust me; many times I can speak their language.” The broker is not alone in his trade by any means. Foreign investment in U.S. property, both agricultural and commer cial, is growing every year. According to the Dept, of Commerce Benchmark Surveys, direct foreign in vestment in the United States has quad rupled from 1959 to 1975. Of the foreign investments located in the Brazos County area, purchases of commercial properties far outweigh ag ricultural purchases both in number of transactions and amount of money in volved. The local commercial properties bought by foreign investors are predominately motels, although there are rumors that several apartment complexes currently are under consideration for purchase. These rumors, though, are as yet un documented. The foreign-owned motel properties in the Bryan-College Station area are mostly small investments by foreigners commonly referred to as “mom and pop types.” This type of foreign investor, according to T. Harold Jambers, a researcher for the Texas Real Estate Research Commission, usually invests in motels, restaurants and retail stores. “Many small investors operate their own businesses and use the investment as a means to facilitate immigration and eventual citizenship for family members,” Jambers said. Local investments of this type, located through county deed records, include: —the Holiday Plaza Motel, 1720 Texas Ave. (Continued on Page 11)