Student Aggie Club gives
endowment to health center
— Page 3
A&M's Toney goes to Eagles,
Williams selected by Jets
— Page 9
Tl^exasASM — „
1 tie Dattalion
Vol.83 No. 145 USPS 075360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, April 30, 1986
I
n, iltl
uclear reactor continues to burn
Washington (ap) — u.s. in-
dJuRgence sources reported that the
irs diwrnobvl nuclear reactor complex
me Soviet Ukraine experienced a
((down Saturday, was still billow-
smoke Tuesday and threatened
ither reactor at (he same site,
rms control administrator Ken-
|h Adelman, meanwhile, told
igress (hat Soviet claims only two
ths were preposterous and called
incident “the most catastrophic
leardisaster in history."
|Erelated stories:
• Soviets keeping quiet
• Foreign aid requested
• Experts call it a meltdown
fr
• U.S. set to monitor radiation
de said temperatures reached as
;h as 7,232 degrees Fahrenheit at
graphite-cooled reactor and
Bed, “The graphite is burning and
will continue to burn for a good
number of days.”
It was understood that much of
the U.S. intelligence information
was gathered by a spy satellite, but
no officials confirmed this.
A ranking administration official,
speaking on condition of anonymity,
said that officials evaluating recent
intelligence “don’t believe there was
a nuclear explosion per se,” at Cher
nobyl. “But there was clearly a melt
down.”
However, a group of physicists
said they did not believe a meltdown
was possible. Dr. William W. Havens
Jr., executive secretary of the Ameri
can Physical Society, said it would
take temperatures of about 5,000
degrees Fahrenheit to melt the low-
grade uranium oxide fuel. It would
be hard to reach temperatures of
even 3,000 degrees in a graphite car
bon fire, he said.
“There was no fuel meltdown,”
said Allan Bromley, a physics profes
sor at Yale. But he added, “As long
as the Fire continues, there will be a
continued release of radiation.”
U.S. said to be safe from radiation
As of early Tuesday morning,
“smoke was still billowing from the
site. The roof had been blown off
See Meltdown, page 12
By Brian Pearson
Senior Staff Writer
The drifting radiation cloud
caused by the possible meltdown at
the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
in Soviet Ukraine will not pose a
health problem for the United
States, said Donald Feltz, director of
the Texas A&M Nuclear Sciences
Center.
Feltz said the slight increase in ra
diation levels caused by the cloud
might be detected in the United
States within a week.
“It’s not going to be a threat, but
scientists (in the United States) will
be able to detect it,” Feltz said.
He said that although Finland,
Denmark and Sweden, which are
about 800 miles away from the dam
aged reactor, have experienced an
increase in radiation levels, the in
creases are not dangerous.
He added that natural levels of ra
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diation in other spots around the
world exceed the increased levels de
tected in the Scandinavian countries.
The people in the most serious
danger of radiation poisoning, F’eltz
said, are those within one to two
miles of the reactor.
He said the accident would not
have been as severe if the reactor
had employed better containment
facilities.
“The experts are considering that
they’re suffering a meltdown,” he
said. “The real emphasis has been
placed on the fact that the Russian
nuclear program does require the
installation of a containment facility
that could control a radiation release
of this magnitude.
“That’s basically their whole prob
lem. This (Chernobyl) reactor has no
containment. When the accident oc
curred, the radiation went right out
of there.”
Feltz said an adequate con
tainment facility would include a
confinement building, such as ones
required for reactors in the United
States, which would prevent most of
the radiation from escaping the
plant.
The nuclear accident, Feltz said,
probably was caused by a failure
within the reactor cooling system.
The loss of cooling, he said, allowed
the nuclear fuel to reach tempera
tures in excess of 2,000 degrees
Fahrenheit, causing it to melt
through the metal fuel containers
called “clads.” If the clads fail, the
fission fuel products, such as radio
active gases, can be released to (he
surrounding area.
Feltz said release does not cause
an explosion, but does cause a cloud
of radioactive gas.
“All that came out of this one was
a big puff of radiation,” he said.
Reagan begins
Indonesian visit
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The Polls Are Open
Students cast their votes Tuesday for their favorite pair of legs at the
Mosher Hall Leggs Contest table by Rudder Fountain. The contest
Photo by Anthony S. Casper
supports the Christian Children’s Fund and voting will continue
through Thursday.
90,000 expected at Memorial Stadium
FarmAid II set for July 4 in Austin
AUSTIN (AP) — Country music
:arWillie Nelson said Tuesday that
armAid II in Memorial Stadium,
:heduled for July 4, has no mone-
iry goals but could he more success-
jlthat FarmAid I, which raised ap
proximately $9 million.
I FarmAid I was held Sept. 22 on
the University of Illinois campus at
jhampaign, Ill.
Nelson appeared with Texas Ag-
Iculture Commissioner Jim High-
Vver at a news conference at Me
morial Stadium on the University of
Texas campus.
Asked what the goal of the Farm-
Aid II concert was, Nelson said, “We
have no goals money-wise — $100
billion would be nice but we!I take
anything up to that.”
Nelson said a crowd of nearly
90,000 is expected for the concert.
Hightower said Nelson “is not
only a superstar in the music world
but the last couple of years we have
found him to be a true friend of the
family farmers and ranchers of this
country.”
Hightower said University of
Texas regents and legal officials had
agreed in principle to allowing use
of the stadium, and the state agricul
ture department would be the offi
cial state sponsor of the program.
Nelson traditionally has July 4
concerts in Texas, and Hightower
said, “There were other states vying
for this (FarmAid). Mississippi
wanted to have it, Nebraska wanted
BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan, bearing a “message of
freedom” for Asian allies, arrived to
a lush welcome in the Orient on
Tuesday, but Indonesian authorities
promptly expelled two Australian
journalists in Reagan’s entourage.
A third reporter, Barbara Cross-
ette of The New York Times, who
had come on her own, was also or
dered out of the country, allegedly
because she had written stories crit
ical of Indonesian President Su
harto.
Richard Palfreyman and James
Middleton, Washington-based cor
respondents for the Australian
Broadcasting Corp., were ordered
off the press plane accompanying
Reagan, detained briefly in the air
port terminal here, then told to leave
the country on the next plane to To
kyo.
Suharto banned all Australian
journalists after a Sydney newspaper
published an article alleging corrup
tion in his government.
Reagan and his wife Nancy were
greeted by Suharto and his wife
Tien and led down a red-carpeted
receiving line as young girls in native
costume tossed flowers in their path.
Under extremely tight security,
the Reagans were escorted through
the large ornate stone Gates of Bali,
the symbolic entry point to the is
land.
Hundreds evacuated
in landmark library fire
to have it but it belonged in Texas.
“Having Willie Nelson on the
Fourth of July in Mississippi is just as
silly as moving the State Fair (of
Texas) to Mississippi, and we
thought it belonged right here.”
Hightower was asked how the ar
tificial turf in the stadium would be
protected, and he said it would be
covered by plywood and an “exotic
material that doesn’t burn, doesn’t
melt, doesn’t scorch and doesn’t al
low anything bad to happen to it.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fire tore
through the landmark, 60-year-old
downtown library Tuesday, con
suming thousands of books, collaps
ing parts of the building’s interior
and forcing the evacuation of hun
dreds of patrons and employees.
At least 22 firefighters were in
jured as more than 250 battled the
blaze in the three-story building,
which contains more than 2 million
books, periodicals and photographs.
Historic murals, photographs and
U.S. patents were believed destroyed
along with tens of thousands of vol
umes, some of them rare and irre
placeable. ,
The fire in the neo-classical build
ing, which is listed on National Reg
ister of Historical Places, started
around 11 a.m. and continued to
burn Tuesday evening. There were
no reported injuries to the public or
employees.
Fire Chief Donald Manning called
the blaze “very treacherous — the
worst fire to contain I’ve seen in my
31 years” as a firefighter.
The cause of the fire was not im
mediately known, city fire Inspector
Ed Reed said.
Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, who
went to the scene, said the library
would probably have to be rebuilt.
Flames started in the sixth tier of
the building’s eight-tier central book
stacks and pushed their way into the
attic. Tier six corresponds with the
second floor.
The fire began before 11 a.m. and
part of the third floor collapsed
about two hours later.
Town Hall to try promoter-oriented shows
By Jeanne Isenberg
Staff Writer
Concerts and Broadw'ay shows saw some
Bimdays at Texas A&M this year, but MSC
Town Hall hopes to change that by bring-
W promoters into the selection process for
fext season’s concerts and shows.
Jim Hurd, Town Hall’s faculty adviser,
aid 1985-86 was the w'orst year financially
lor the committee. The projected deficit of
necommittee for 1986 is about $61,000, he
Hurd attributes the loss to several fac-
|tors. On the concert scene, he says the two
aajor moneylosers were the two country-
fwestern acts which came to A&M in Feb-
Jary.
“Lee Greenwood and the American Mu
sic Tour are the two that really put us out of
business,” Hurd says. “We’re still not sure
why both failed, but we relearned a lesson
of three years ago — don’t book another
show until the one you’re working on is
over with.”
On the Town Hall/Broadway front, the
problem wasn’t losses from a show, Hurd
says, but rather from a drop in season ticket
sales. With a major production such as
42nd Street this year, he says prices of sea
son tickets rose.
Next season, Town Hall won’t be bring
ing any large scale musicals that could in
flate the price for the tickets, he says, but in
stead is bringing a wider variety of shows
such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Romeo and
Juliet and Of Mice and Men.
Hurd says Town Hall is hoping to try a
new approach to programming next year.
While the committee historically has gone
on its own to the acts it wanted, it is now
gearing toward promoter-oriented shows.
In this circumstance, he says a major pro
moter pays for the privilege of coming in
and doing a show. The advantage is that the
promoter takes the risk, he says, but if the
show does well, the promoter takes most of
the profit.
If Town Hall can establish good
relationships with promoters, Hurd says it
may be able to rebuild its reserves and its
reputation with the market by getting peo
ple interested in local concerts.
Hurd says that with the lack of diversity
in entertainment in College Station, Town
Hall will work next year to expose the A&M
community to a wider diversity of enter
tainment and to help in the development of
new, lesser-known artists instead of restrict
ing programs to the big-name concerts.
“This (community) is a hotbed of up-
and-coming talent and we want to provide a
venue for that talent,” he says.
James Randolph, senior associate direc
tor of the MSC and'adviser of Town Hall
from 1973-80, says another problem the
committee has had to face is a radical
change in the market for concerts.
Artists have moved into a “bigger is bet
ter” mode, Randolph says, and A&M just
can’t afford to bring a lot of them here.
Aside from artist fees, Town Hall also
would have to pay for technical costs such
as lighting and staging.
“Given the facilities available and the en
vironment in which we function, the big-
name concert is a thing of the past,” Ran
dolph says.
Fie also says artists no longer need cities
such as College Station or places like A&M.
While artists used to be anxious to play con
cert dates everywhere to promote their re
cords, they can accomplish more now by
broadcasting on channels such as Music
Television instead of going on tour.
Hurd says Town Hall had talked to John
Cougar Mellencamp, whose asking price
was $75,000. That figure didn’t include the
band, promotional or technical costs, Hurd
says.
“The most expensive show we’ve done to
my knowledge was $35,000,” he says. “Bob
Hope was $50,000, but he wasn’t a concert
and there were no extra fees (band or tech
nical).
“Town Hall used to bring the up-and-
coming acts for $ 10,000-$ 15,000. They’re
just not out there anymore. The prices are
more than our market is willing to sup
port.”