Crowd thin, applause thick
at country music concert
— Page 3
r'/k
Lady Aggies try to regroup
for final home game of '86
— Page 7
V Texas ASM ■ m m m •
The Battalion
83 INo. 103 USPS 075360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, February 21, 1986
Dldiers
Ned in
renada
Honored
Associated Press
GEORGE’S, Grenada — Un-
dazzling Caribbean sun, Presi-
Reagan on Thursday retraced
steps of American invasion
that ousted a radical Marxist
nment from this tiny island 27
hs ago and vowed the United
5 also “must help those strug-
for freedom in Nicaragua.”
agan Hew here to honor the 19
emen killed in three days of
ng that forced Cuban troops
Grenada and led to formation
democratically elected govern-
tid a green wreath with a pur-
bbon at the foot of a memorial
e 19, then stepped back and
silent for a moment,
a speech hours later to a
ing, flag-waving crowd, Rea-
ikened events in Nicaragua to
that prompted him to order
Invasion of Grenada and de-
I he won’t he satisfied “until all
aeople of the Americas have
d ns in the warm sunshine of
y and justice.”
: was introduced as “our own
nal hero, our own rescuer” by
Minister Hci bert Blaize, who
red a national holidav in honor
visit.
te audience estimated at more
20,()()() roared approval when
an hailed democracy in Gre-
and declared, “When people
ree, their rights to speak and to
tre protected by law, and the
is are not running the jails, they
i the jails.”
porters asked Reagan whether
ad any plans to use military
in Nicaragua.
o," he replied. “I think it’s an
ely different situation. We have
Blans.”
I tt in his speech, Reagan said,
lay in Nicaragua we see a chain
ents similar to what happened
ere We hear the same excuses
■e for the communists, while the
eople of Nicaragua see their free-
■ slowly but surely eaten away.”
RVs greet Prince Charles in Austin
Cadets join in Sesquicentennial ceremony
By staff and wire reports
AUSTIN — When Britain’s
Prince Charles and Gov. Mark
White stepped out on the Capitol’s
steps Thursday for a ceremony cel
ebrating Texas’ Sesquicentennial,
15 members of Texas A&M’s Ross
Volunteers stood at attention to
greet them.
The RVs, the official honor
guard for the governor, formed
two lines on Capitol steps, through
which White and Prince Charles
walked.
During the 10 minute cere
mony, which included a 21-gun sa
lute by the National Guard, Prince
Charles gave a short speech and
exchanged gifts with White. As the
ceremony concluded, the prince
pulled a cord to unveil a huge
Texas flag to a crowd of more than
3,000 people.
Mark Feagins, a senior agri
business major, describes the event
as an emotional one for the RVs.
“The highlight of the trip was
Photo by GREG BAILEY
Thousands watched as Texas A&M’s Ross Volunteers participated in a Sesquicentennial ceremony with Prince Charles and Gov. Mark White
standing there representing A&M
while our national anthem was
playing,” Feagins says. “It was just
a great experience.
“It was something I’ll remember
mv whole life. 1 was just glad to get
the opportunity to go.”
In another ceremony Thursday,
Prince Charles, skillfully wielding a
three-foot sword, cut a 45-ton cake
to help Texas celebrate its 150th
anniversary.
“I bring the very best possible
wishes from the people of Great
Britain and her majesty, the
queen,” Prince Charles said earlier
in the day. “I do wish you a very
happy birthday indeed.”
The Texas-sized cake, 110-by-
80-feet, was made with 36,000
pounds of yellow cake mix and
30,000 pounds of vanilla frosting.
The tuxedo-clad prince received
an ovation from the crowd when
he tried the cake. He also handed
pieces to two children who were se
lected for the first samples.
Cutting the cake capped a day of
Sesquicentennial-related events.
During a tour of the Capitol,
Prince Charles received a gift he
jokingly said might prove useful
around the palace.
While meeting state legislators
in the Texas Senate chamber, the
prince was presented a 1 '/a-foot-
long wooden gavel by Lt. Gov. Bill
Hobby.
“I can only say that this gavel —
which is by far the biggest I’ve ever
had and which is entirely appro
priate because it comes from Texas
— I’m sure will be a frightfully use
ful blunt instrument for maintain
ing discipline in the home,” said
the f ather of two young sons.
The giant gavel was one of many
gifts Texans offered during the
prince’s day-long visit to Austin.
Presents included a Texas flag
that flew over the Capitol, given by
House Speaker Gib Lewis; an 1838
London-made map of Texas from
White, and a stuffed longhorn
steer toy from a University of
Texas student.
The prince said he has enjoyed
his Texas trip, which began Mon
day in Dallas, took him to Houston
and ends Friday in San Antonio.
'orker at A&M files complaint with safety administration
By SONDRA PICKARD
Staff Writer
construction worker at Texas A&M
a complaint Wednesday with the Oc-
[itional Safety and Health Administra-
saying he was fired because he refused
>rk under unsafe conditions.
Bandy Thomas, 34, said he was exposed
B s day to dangerous levels of harmful
jnicals found in an epoxy solvent being
in the construction of the new Engi-
ing Physics Building. He said he re
el to work under the potentially hazard-
[conditions and was fired.
■homas worked for Houston Metro
Btric, a subcontractor of Rogers Con
struction, the general contractor for the
construction project.
He worked Five weeks as an electrician’s
assistant at the site before he was assigned a
job in the basement of the building where
epoxy was being sprayed on the walls.
Epoxy is a resin, or plant-extracted sub
stance, that is commonly used in strong, re
sistant glues and enamels. It is sprayed over
paint to give it a shiny appearance and to
protect the surface.
Thomas said he worked in the basement
for four days, sometimes for hours at a
time, as painters applied the epoxy. During
that time, he said, he experienced symp
toms such as dizziness, nausea, headaches
and irritated eyes — symptoms that he said
persisted up to eight hours after leaving
work. *■
Thomas said that when his requests to be
relocated to another part of the building
were denied, he refused to continue work
ing and was told by his foreman, Jerry Tra
vis, to “pick up your tools and go on home.”
Thomas has filed complaints with the
Austin and Houston OSHA offices and the
University Safety Office at A&M.
The complaints he filed are listed under
paragraph 11C of the Occupational Safety
Health Act, which states that every em
ployee has the right to safety and health at
his workplace, and must not be discrimi
nated against for complaining about unsafe
conditions while on the job.
Ed Cosgrove, an industrial hygienist with
the Austin OSHA, took Thomas’s com
plaint. C.osgrove said Thomas’s complaint
will he forwarded to OSHA’s regional of
fice in Dallas, where a discrimination offi
cer will take the case and contact both
Thomas and his former employer by tele
phone. Cosgrove said if the complaint is le
gitimate, OSHA would like to see Thomas
get his job, back, receive any back pay he
may be missing and get his personnel re
cord purged of the incident.
In this particular kind of case, Cosgrove
said, an investigator will not be sent to the
worksite because the job in question will
probably be finished in a couple of days. In
cases involving ongoing projects posing an
extremely serious threat to workers, an
OSHA investigator is usually sent within
seven days.
A graduate student in the A&M Recre
ation and Parks Department, Thomas said
he was working on the construction to earn
some extra money and that he knew the job
would only last about two months.
“Everybody’s been getting high as a kite
while they’re working down there,”
Thomas said. “You get dizzy and sort of
lost while you’re trying to work. Your lungs
hurt and you’re nauseated.
“I’d have been glad to work anywhere,
just not right in there where they’re spray-
See Worker, page 12
:ourt reduces bond
for Texaco's appeal
Associated Press
■ NEW YORK — A federal ap-
jMs court took pressure off
Jexaco Inc. Thursday, ruling
■exaco need not post a $12 bil-
Tm bond before it can appeal a
lulti-bil lion-dollar damage
■dement won by Pennzoil Co. in
Jexas.
■ A three-judge panel of the 2nd
l.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Spheld a lower court ruling that
■exaco would have to put up $ 1
fllion in security, a requirement
Be company satisfied by pledg-
|g stock in its Canadian subsid*
jiy.
■ The appeals panel said the $12
BHion bond that would have been
■Iquired by Texas law “lacks any
jliional basis, since it would de
stroy Texaco and render its right
of appeal in Texas an exercise in
futility.”
“This would at least amount to
a deprivation of its property in vi
olation of its right to due process
under the Constitution,” the
court added.
John K. McKinley, the compa
ny’s chairman and chief executive
officer, said, “This decision con
firms Texaco’s ability to appeal
the judgement of the appellate
courts without the burden of op
pressive bond and liens.”
In Houston, Pennzoil Chair
man J. Hugh Liedtke told The
Associated Press that he joined
McKinley in being “delighted”
See Court, page 12
A&M nuclear reactor
Uronium fuel level expected to be downgroded by 1988
By BRIAN PEARSON
Senior Staf f Writer
High-enriched uranium fuel used
in Texas A&M’s nuclear reactor is
expected to be replaced by low-en
riched fuel by the end of 1988, the
director of the A&M Nuclear Sci
ences Center said Tuesday.
Donald Feltz said this change is
being made to comply with a Feb. 6
ruling made by the Nuclear Regula-
tOry Commission. The ruling re
quires about 24 nuclear research re
actors around the country to use
low-enriched fuel because if this fuel
were stolen, it would be more diffi
cult to use in the composition of a
nuclear weapon than would the
weapons-grade, high-enriched fuel.
The fuel replacement should al
low the facility, upon approval by
the NRC, to upgrade reactor power
from one megawatt to two mega
watts, Feltz said.
“We’ve opposed this (rule) all
along,” Feltz said.
Feltz said the current fuel, which
is not weapons grade, would be diffi
cult to steal and convert to weapons-
grade uranium. Weapons-grade
uranium is almost 99 percent pure.
Uranium fuel less than 99 percent
pure must go through a complicated
refining process to become weapons
grade, he said.
Feltz said that although the NRC
has not set a deadline for replace
ment, the A&M facility probably will
switch the fuel in 1988 and follow
through with the proposed upgrade
of the reactor.
“The (NRC) rule only will be put
into effect if federal funds are avail
able," Feltz said. “In the long-range
planning of this facility, we were
looking at upgrading our reactor in
its performance anyway.”
He said the federal government,
through the U.S. Department of En-
ergy, will pay about $150,000 in fuel
shipping costs and about $750,000
for the recently-developed, low-en
riched fuel.
Feltz said the A&M reactor cur-
rently uses 70 percent unranium-en-
riched fuel and is on the end of the
list of facilities affected by the NRC
ruling.
The first reactors that wall be
asked by the NRC to switch fuels
currently use 93 percent enriched
fuel. Feltz said.
He said the new' fuel will be less
than 20 percent enriched, the point
at which a fuel is considered to be
low enriched and -difficult to use to
make a nuclear w'eapon.
The new fuel along with the up
grading of the facility, Feltz said, will
allow the reactor to provide more re
search because the low-enriched fuel
will be operated at a higher mega
watt capacity than the current fuel.
The present high-enriched fuel can
operate at a maximum of 1.5 mega
watts and the new low-enriched fuel
design can operate at three mega
watts.
To operate a nuclear reactor at a
higher megawatt power, the control
rods in the reactor core are further
out to allow for more Fission to oc
cur. This allows For a greater release
of neutrons.
“The higher the neutron flux, the
See A&M nuclear, page 12