national Battalion/Page 5 July 6, 1982 Warped By Scott McCullar PAMAf IT*. I DON'T THINK I jCAtf TAKE AN1 MORE SUMER SCHOOL. THE TESTS, THE PACE, I THE STUDYING, I TOST CAN'T 60 ON LIKE.... MAIL? £2, DEAR MERRITT, TOST A QUICK NOTE. NE WENT TO SEE “£.T" THE OTHER NIGHT, AND lOU KNO\N THE PART WHERE HE IS LOST AND ALL HE WAVTS TO DO IS GO HOME ? WELL, / THOUGHT of you,AVD| I JUST WAITED TO WRITE AMD TELL YOU HOW MUCH I MISS VOU AMD LOVE YOU. mom Nuke plants unsafe, Nader group says Other nations do better in inflation-fight: report United Press International WASHINGTON — A con- Igressional study says other na tions are doing a better job than [the United States in lighting in- I flation. Joint Economic Committee IChairman Rep. Henry Reuss, D- [Wis., said Monday “other in- [dustrialized nations have learned that a climate t)f cooper ation and consensus in the fight [against inflation is far superior ito economic policy which fates [millions of workers to unem ployment lines.” He said leaders of some na- Jtions “use all the tools available [—ranging from the art of per- [suasion to outright wage and [price controls — to keep infla- [tion at an acceptable level.” The study, prepared by the Congressional Research Service, examined the wage and price policies of Australia, Austria, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands and West Germany. Reuss said each country sought to have a wage and price policy that minimized the social and economic costs imposed by anti-inflation policies, which succeed by creating an economic slowdown and unemployment. Australia monitored prices and wages; it was only the use of compulsory arbitration that held down inflation and fore stalled labor strife. The report said Austria’s Joint Commission on Wages and Prices went beyond controls to become “a system of economic and social partnership” that has been a major factor in damping inflation and in avoiding “debili tating swings” in the Austrian economy. Canada, the report said, has alternated periods of voluntary policies with periods of manda tory controls and found controls “became increasingly unpopu lar the longer they lasted.” Japan’s experience with infla tion, the report said, appears to be the most interesting because it has been able to maintain “re markable price stability” at the le consumer level. The island nation has sup plemented traditional monetary tools with price controls and a system of labor relations that keeps wages in line with changes in productivity. Perhaps the best lesson to be In West Germany, the report said, there is a greater “spirit of cooperation and trust” between management and labor than in many other countries — prob ably due in part to a “fear of social conflict” and in part to cooperation born in “the need to rebuild the war-torn economy of the 1940s.” Labor Department bureaucrats sidelined, paid for no work United Press International WASHINGTON — The [Reagan administration, at tax payers’ expense, has sidelined 19 highly paid career Labor De partment policy experts in a move said designed to increase the number of political appoin tees in career jobs. The veteran bureaucrats Rave been assigned little or no work for the past nine months — at a cost to taxpayers of $600,000. One of the employees said he and several colleagues — paid $40,000 to $50,000 a year — spent much of their office time recently reading newspapers, phoning their stockbrokers or discussing their futures over coffee. Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan issued a directive re quiring 16 of the officials to be transferred to new jobs June 28 — putting many of them in roles in which they have no expertise or prior experience. Several of those involved charge the transfers are an illeg al attempt by the administration to increase the number of poli tical appointees in key posts. But Assistant Labor Secretary John Cogan argues the transfers were forced by a reorganization of the policy office and budget cutting moves. Several employees, who re quested anonymity for fear of reprisals, said they got no re sponse when they asked for work. One said he felt the admi nistration doesn’t trust the career officials to carry out its policies, although many worked in their jobs during the Nixon years. At least one lawyer in the Office of Personnel Manage ment and an aide to a House civil service subcommittee say it is im proper and probably illegal to deny work assignments to career specialists. Cogan denied any political motivation, but said, “I want to say candidly that I do believe that a policy shop in any depart ment should fraction of its staff being people who are political appointees.” He said the transfers were necessary because the policy office’s research role was trim med and its staff reduced from 56 to 40. have at least some Among those reassigned are two officers of Local 12 of the American Federation of Gov ernment Employees, represent ing 5,000 to 6,000 employees at the Labor Department’s head quarters building. SEPTEMBER 11 COUNTRY & WESTERN DANCE LESSONS at Valerie Martin’s Gallery of Dance Arts THERE’S STILL TIME TO PREPARE, Registration — Wednesday, July 14 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Classes start Wednesday, July 14 at 7:30 p.m. Private lessons available Call for more information 107 Dowling Road 693-0352 Call Days Evenings & Weekends -H. Classes start Educational Center TEST PREPARATION SPECIALISTS SINCE 1938 CALL 696-3196 July 11 FOR MORE INFORMATION 707 TEXAS AVE. 301-C SUMMER II COURSES Basic Mechanics Bartending Astrology Jitterbug • Dancercise • C&W Dance • Wedding Planning THURS., JULY 8 10 am-3 pm ^ MSC Main Hallway 4 learned from the Netherlands, the report said, is that control of inflation is less dependent on the government’s power to set prices and wages than “on de veloping a consensus between employers and unions that their own best interest will be served by accepting the interrelation between wages and prices and by attempting to maintain a ba lance between them.” United Press International WASHINGTON — A Ralph Nader group has charged that a draft of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission study records 141 nuclear plant incidents that could have led to a meltdown between 1969 and 1979 — one of which was at Three Mile Is land. A meltdown, which did not occur at Three Mile Island, would occur if overheated reac tor core fuel rods melted. Theoretically, the rods would then melt through the reactor base and into the ground, lead ing to a large, hazardous release of radioactivity. Richard Udell, a nuclear safe ty analyst for Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project, said the study showed “nuclear power plants are riddled with design errors and their opera tion plagued by equipment fai lures and human errors.” The Jan. 15, 1981, study was done at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., National Laboratory for the NRC’s Division of Systems Relia bility Research. The researchers screened 18,000 “events” — most of minor significance — reported by plant operators and gave 400 incidents a “detailed review.” According to the draft, “141 events were ... potential accident precursors (to severe core dam age).” The incidents were distri buted among 58 reactors, some of which are no longer oper ating. Donald Winston, spokesman for the Atomic Industrial Forum, the main nuclear indus try association, said the law re- * quires reporting of minor inci dents, such as blown fuses, that are “significant only because they apply to a nuclear plant.” He said between 2,500 and 3,500 such incidents are re ported yearly. According to the Oak Ridge draft report, almost all the inci dents involve one of four acci dent scenarios: •Loss of main feedwater. In a nuclear reactor, feedwater flows into a reactor vessel, where heat turns it into steam to generate electricity. Feedwater also per forms a safety function by re moving heat from the reactor core. Loss of feedwater can lead to overheating of the core. •Loss of coolant, caused by a leak or valve problem, also can lead to overheating of the reac tor core. At Three Mile Island, in Middletown, Pa., a coolant loss in 1979 damaged 90 percent of the uranium fuel reactor reactor could cause an excessive temperature drop in water that cools the core. If heat is carried away too fast from a reactor, operators may have difficulty stopping the atomic chain reac tion. •Loss of offsite power. When a nuclear plant must shut down, it relies on other plants — offsite electricity — to power its safety systems. If offsite power is lost, diesel generators at the nuclear plant are relied upon for backup power. Top Drawer from Basics to Designers •Steam line break. A break in the main steam line of a nuclear Levis - Sedgefield - Lee - 1 Blass - Calvin Klein - Ocean Pacific - Jockey - Stanley - Blacker - Esprit - Jordache - and more. j • ^ Serving Luncheon Buffet Sunday through Friday 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.^2^ $4.50 plus tax ^ Top Floor of Tower Dining Room J Sandwich & Soup Mon. through Fri. $2.19 plus drink and tax S I: “different spokes for different folks” 403 University (Northgate) Open 10-7 Mon.-Fri. 10-5 Sat. 846-BIKE 4tOpen to the Public 4. 1 “Quality First” INTRODUCING TWO NEW SPECIALTIES OF THE HOUSE^^H MONTEREY