*otver company executives say nukes can be
By MARCY BOYCE
Battalion Reporter
Improvements in both design and
operating procedures at nuclear power
plants make them “safe enough,” two rep
resentatives of the Texas Utilities Generat
ing Company at Comanche Peak, said at
Texas A&M University Wednesday.
Billy Clements, vice president of the
plant, and David Chapman, manager of
quality control at the facility, spoke in a
program entitled “Nuclear Energy: How
Safe?” sponsored by the Great Issues
committee.
Clements is not kin to Texas Governor
Bill Clements. The plant he and Chapman
work for is 12 miles outside of Glenrose.
The Three Mile Island accident could
have been prevented had operators at the
plant reacted correctly to signals, Cle
ments said.
“A series of small incidents grew into a
catastrophe” because they didn’t, he said.
“The smugness is gone,” he said.
“Management is more aware. And even if
they are not public-minded, they have fi
nancial investments to protect.
“Operator training is one area in which
we have made great strides,” he said.
Texas Utilities now concentrates more
on basic procedures for small incidents,
such as those which built up and lead to
the Three Mile Island accident. In the
past, he said, training emphasized what to
do under the worst possible circum
stances.
Clements compared that to training
people who work at the top of Rudder
Tower what to do if the building crumbled
rather than if it caught fire. One is much
more probable than the other, he said.
Requiring operators to return annually
for additional training instead of every two
years is another step towards creating safer
plants, Clements said.
Moreover, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission is requiring shift supervisors
at the plants to receive 60 college hours in
subjects such as reactor physics and
chemistry^
Ideally, Clements said, plants would
like to hire coUege graduates as technical
advisers. This individual, with two to
three years experience in the field, would
be independent of operations.
Design, as well as procedures, have
been reviewed. Components of the nu
clear plants are conservatively designed.
Chapman said.
“We are required to postulate condi
tions for which no one can explain mecha
nisms for their occurrence, ” he said, “and
then provide back-up systems for alterna
tive methods.”
For example. Chapman said, coolant
piping is designed much thicker than it
actually needs to be. And back-up systems
are provided assuming there is a double-
ended break in the pipe with coolant flow
ing out of both ends.
But additional evidence of the safety of
the nuclear plants, Chapman said, is the
multi-level independent system of checks
and balances. These include inspections
by quality control at the plant, as well as
inspections, routine and by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, he said.
“There is some risk,” Chapman said, re
gardless of these safety precautions. “But
the risk involved with no energy de
veloped at all is probably the worst risk of
all.”
Clements said a moratorium would
delay construction of 30 nuclear plants
which could save a billion barrels of oil a
day in imports.
But even if all energy in the United
States was generated by nuclear energy,
the Union of Concerned Scientists have
estimated that the total reduction from life
expectancy for the average adult would be
only two days. Chapman said.
“A resident of Harrisburg, Pa., receives
less radioactivity within one year than
someone who lives in the Rocky
Mountains,” he said.
David Chapman
Battalion
73 No. 44
fages in 2 Sections
Thursday, November 1, 1979
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Silver Taps tonight
Silver Taps will be held in front of the Academic Building
today at 10:30 p.m.
The ceremony will honor Texas A&M University stu
dents Stuart W. Black, who died Oct. 21, and Kathleen
Fox, who died Saturday.
Lights should be turned off from 10:20-10:50 p.m.
This herd of “elephants,” with costumes fashioned
from old sweatshirts, joined a great mob of ghouls,
weirdies and various and sundry odd creatures that
swarmed over the Texas A&M University campus
and the local community Wednesday night celeb
rating Halloween. For more pictures, see page 8.
qUective tension^ prevails
Murder threats real to some
By RICHARD OLIVER
Battalion StaiT
ir produced by Halloween night is
an exciting experience. For some
residents, however, the murder of
m Muhlinghaus has produced fear of
lly different nature,
ries of rape, murder and threats have
circulated widely over the past two
and an uneasiness is prevalent,
hough police say the tales of rape and
er are false, the threats have become
) real to some people,
ime of them are pranks,” said College
)n Assistant Police Chief Edgar
nan, “and some are not. Probably,
of them are prank calls and such. ”
a Battalion story that ran Tuesday,
nan said he believed the circulating
rs were false, but many residents
exception to this view,
i believe we were on different
lengths about this,” Feldman said,
certainly not saying people are mak-
hese up. I didn’t mean there weren’t
Its, I just think it’s people playing
is. People are actually getting notes.”
he Battalion has received several re
ts of threats in the last two days.
Ine student reported she had received
tries of threatening notes in her apart-
at in the week beginning Oct. 21. One
fhe notes, she said, was written in
pick on a plate-glass door. It referred to
Muhlinghaus murder, saying, “soon . .
e will have fun like LaShan and me.”
)n another occasion, she reported find-
a copy of the 45-record “Good Girls
n t” on her doorstep, with “but you will
n added on the label of the record,
fhe woman said she believes the threats
I d, saying, “The contents of the notes
:k enough that I don’t think anyone
ow would have done it.”
ectives are monitoring her apart-
complex, the Viking apartments,
te this surveillance, she said, the
ening caller still manages to place
tes.
e detectives told us they file fake re-
she said, “and I think they’re cov-
up quite a lot. ” •
dman said he doesn’t believe the
;rer is leaving the notes, and denies
olice are attempting a cover-up.
■We’re not covering up anything,” he
p. “Every report we have received has
|en up front on the desk and the media
p seen them. Nothing has been hidden.
The story is not true at all — we re not
withholding anything. ”
Another student reported a man came
into her apartment Saturday, claiming to
be a magazine salesman.
The man, she said, appeared to be 20
years old, clean-cut and very polite.
The man asked her several personal
questions, she said, then left when she
told him she didn’t like his selling tech
nique. He told her she was letting him
down by not buying any magazines.
“He wouldn’t tell me what company he
was from or anything,” she said. “He fi
nally listed a company, but he couldn’t
verify that he worked for them, so I didn’t
want to buy anything from him.”
The man returned a minute later, she
said, and asked for a glass of water; then he
proceeded to tell her about his life and the
responsibilities of his job, saying, “I get as
much drugs, sex and money out of it (the
job) as I want.”
During the conversation, the man said
he was a violent person and asked her if he
resembled the sketch of the suspect in the
Muhlinghaus case.
The man said the police had questioned
him about the murder.
He made a pass at her and then left her
apartment, telling her he would “see her
later.”
The woman told police about the inci
dent. The police, she said, told her to be
on her guard.
, Feldman said he wasn’t familiar with the
> story because he doesn’t get a chance to
see every report.
“I have not read the reports,” he said.
“A lot goes by that I don’t see.”
W. Dee Kutach, an associate professor
of sociology and an expert in criminal
sociology, said he believes the rumors are
a “collective reaction.”
“In society, we have institutional net
works of communication like the media,”
he said. “The media allegedly adheres to
the journalistic codes of honesty and relia
bility. Individuals who read these mate
rials are assuming these are reliable, cred
ible statements.”
Kutach said many institutions lack cre
dibility in the public’s eye, however.
“University police can say there are no
rapes, but people see them as parking-
ticket violation givers, so they lack credi
bility,” he said. “No matter what you or I
say or they say, the rumors are not going
to lessen.”
Kutach said a rumor begins with an
event such as a murder, then becomes a
collective reaction.
“People tend to discuss it more and
more, ” he said. “As the rumor circulates,
each individual can contribute what they
want to contribute. The credibility of the
rumor doesn’t matter by this time. For
example, a person will come up to a group
of people and say, ‘this is what I heard,’
and the people will listen. People don’t
even know who these people are, but they
will listen to them.”
Kutach said if the murder had happened
six months ago, the girl who was visited by
the suspicious character probably wouldn’t
have thought much of it.
“She would have thought it was a real
weird guy,” he said, “but she wouldn’t
think of this guy as a murderer. You can
hear anything you want.”
Kutach terms the rumors’ effect on
people as “collective tension. ”
“When you have no other creditable
source of information or believable infor
mation,” he said, “the typical citizen is
going to react to a rumor on the emotional
level or the gut feeling.
“For example, this past weekend, a girl
did die, and she was an A&M student.
Therefore, someone was half listening and
thought the girl was murdered. There was
enough credibility there. People pick up
what suits them. The thing is, the message
which is given out does not even come out
the same.
“You seek answers from an institutional
source, they don’t have it, and ambiguity
occurs.”
Kutach said the person who would pull
pranks on people by leaving notes and
threats is simply seeking attention.
“Some individuals feel they are not get
ting enough recognition,” he said. “He
might be scaring a girl to get her reaction.”
The threats, whether pranks or real,
continue, and Kutach says he doesn’t think
it will end until a suspect is caught, iden
tified and sent through the criminal pro
cesses.
Feldman said the police department is
investigating the possibility of a connec
tion between the Amarillo killing Friday
night of Sarah Donn Lawrence, 30, and
the Muhlinghaus case.
“There might be a connection,”
Feldman said. “We have some of our offi
cers en route at this time. There are
similarities, but you never know. ”
Fee hassle means
no ‘Knack’ here
By TODD HEDGEPETH
Battalion Reporter
The popular rock group The Knack will
not play at Texas A&M University because
of its asking price and its desire to play
only in small halls. Town Hall Chairman
Michelle Scudder says.
The group, whose first album “Get the
Knack” topped the charts this summer,
listed its fee as $28,000. The group was
being considered for an early November
concert and would only have performed in
Rudder Auditorium.
With production costs added, Scudder
said Town Hall would have had to price
tickets at $15 apiece to simply break even
(based on a predicted audience of 85 per
cent capacity in the 2,400 seat au
ditorium).
Scudder said charging that price for
tickets was out of the question. She also
said the $28,000 fee wasn’t standard for
The Knack.
“They weren’t getting that kind of
money in other performances,” Scudder
said.
She also said the fee was too high for an
“up-and-coming group” that hasn’t estab
lished itself yet.
Scudder said The Knack had its reasons
for wanting to perform in the auditorium.
“They’re an up-and-coming group and
that had a lot to do with it,” she said.
“Psychologically, selling out means a lot to
them. They’d probably rather sell out in a
2,400-seat auditorium than perform to
7,000 in an 8,000-seat arena.
After Town Hall had stopped pursuing
The Knack, Scudder said that the group’s
agent called back and made another offer,
this time with a lower professional fee, for
a concert on Oct. 27. But since the game
that weekend was away, Scudder said the
date was unacceptable and Town Hall
didn’t pursue the offer.
The next Town Hall concert will be The
Oak Ridge Boys on Nov. 16. That group
was the Country Music Association’s vocal
group of the year in 1978. The show starts
at 8 p.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum
with tickets priced at $4.50, $5.25 and
$5.75 on sale in the MSC Box Office.
Town Hall will also present the musical
vaudeville “Chicago” at 8:15 p.m. Nov. 26
in Rudder Auditorium. “Chicago” is a
comedy about the late 1920s and features
an excellent jazz score. It ran two-and-a-
half years on Broadway and is currently
appearing in major cities across the coun
try. Ticket prices are $4.75, $6 and $7.25
for students and $5.75, $7 and $8.25 for
the general public. They can be purchased
at the MSC Box Office.
Town Hall in the black
despite loss on last show
By LAURA CORTEZ
Battalion Reporter
Despite low attendance and a $7,500 loss on its last concert, Town Hall is in
“good financial shape,” says Michelle Scudder, chairman of the organization.
Only 3,200 people attended the Pablo Cruise concert Oct. 20, and although
Town Hall had to pay $24,000 for the concert, it only brought in $16,500.
But Scudder said the organization takes a risk when booking performances and
plans for this in its budget.
She said $13,000 was collected at the beginning of the semester from the sale of
option passes, which entitles holders to first choice of tickets and to reserved
seats, and this money is used “to fall back on.”
“We realized that we would need it (the $13,000) to supplement the cost of a
show that might be a financial risk — the Pablo Cruise concert in particular, ” she
said.
Scudder also said the organization receives $44,000 from student service fees
which helps with production costs.
Town Hall will sponsor four Broadway plays and at least four more concerts this
school year, she said. She said she thinks money will be lost on one or two of the
plays.
‘ Even though we might lose money on the plays, it is important that we provide
this type of entertainment for the students,” she said.
To date. Town Hall has sponsored two concerts in addition to Pablo Cruise.
Scudder said the Beach Boys concert cost $55,000 and brought in $56,200, and
the Mel Tillis concert cost $21,500 and earned $22,300.
Fog may have caused DC-10 jet
to crash land on closed runway
United Press International
MEXICO CITY — Confusion over two
parallel runways sent 74 people to their
deaths in the fiery crash of a Western Air
lines DC-10 at the fog-shrouded Mexico
City airport.
“The approach lights are on runway 23-
left. That runway is closed to traffic, the
correct one is 23-right,” the control tower
had told Capt. Charles Gilbert, a 30-year
veteran who also died in the crash.
“OK,” the pilot responded before land
ing on 23-left, the parallel runway closed
for repairs, and plowing into a string of
buildings.
Western Airlines officials said 72 of the
88 people on board and two people on the
ground died in the crash. A U.S. Embassy
spokesman said 26 of the dead — and five
of the survivors — were Americans.
Officials said the “black box” flight rec
ording was recovered and a transcript of
the final conversation with the control
tower was released late Wednesday by
Mexican Television’s channel 2.
Bodies, many of them dismembered,
and debris from the white-and-red jetliner
that carried 75 passengers and 13 crew
men were scattered for hundreds of yards
around the Mexico City airport.
Thirty people were injured — some of
them on the ground, including ground
personnel and neighborhood residents hit
by debris.
Investigators, aided by experts from the
National Transportation Safety Board and
the Federal Aviation Administration,
worked through the night under flood
lights at the crash site.
A Chicago-based ABC-TV producer,
Kenneth Lucoff, a native of Milwaukee,
was killed in the crash. ABC said Lucoff
was on his way to El Salvador to cover the
fighting in the Central American nation.
Also kiled on the ground were an East
ern Airline employee working in a build
ing flattened by the plane and the driver of
a truck hit by the plane at the top of run
way 23-left, Western Airlines officials said.
“Everything seemed normal until the
right side of the plane hit something,” said
one survivor, Alda Hoogland, 27, an ag
ricultural engineer from the Netherlands.
“There must have been something on the
runway. For a few moments we were free
of the ground, and then we hit the ground
again.
“I flew out of my seat with the seat belt
on. I landed on the runway upside down
with the seat belt still on,” said Hoogland,
who suffered severe facial cuts.
“It touched down with the right tire. A
lot of fire came out and the pilot tried to go
up again but it was not possible so we
turned right more and more, more
dangerously, and then — a big explosion,”
said Alessandro Annibali, 22, of Italy.
The Mexican Transportation Ministry
said the pilot “tried to land on the wrong
runway, clipped a truck in which the
dead truck driver was found, then headed
for the correct runway to the right but
swiped a building with his right wingtip.
In the final conversation, the tower told
the pilot, who was making an instrument
approach, “There are banks of fog,” and
also twice told him that 23-right was the
correct runway for landing.
A spokesman for the control tower
union, Roberto Kobeh, blamed the pilot
for the crash. “It was a pilot error. It was
not the control tower’s fault.”
A Western Airlines spokeswoman in Los
Angeles said it was premature to comment
on the allegation before a full investigation
into the crash.
Freshman runoff results
President
Vice Pres.
Sec.-Trees.
l ■ ■ — ■■■—
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_ Dan Stedham
Mike Lawshe
Diana Horadan ^^53
Kathy ,
Bartholomew
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Rocky Path
Pam Baldwin 1
Jeff Cantrell
Cindy Smith
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