Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 1986)
5 Thursday, May 8, 1986/The Battalion/Page 7 >r kill pra World and Nation Tass: Ukranians panicked after accident <>t ilie dead t her mind ali : to Boon a; | I rum Minerall oiu door and! MOSCOW (AF) — Some Ukrainians were hospitalized because they pan- iimi Soeung. ;icked alter the Chernobvl nuelettr p 34, both of plant accident and poisoned them- I at Conner selves with medicine they thought f mobile home would prevent radiation sickness, i ih. generalt Tass said Wednesday. home plain:®! was the first official reference to I oil workom panic after the explosion, fire and let 3-week-ol: reactor core meltdown April 26 that i, was hit ini: spewed an invisible cloud of radia- llet. Hn over Europe, ts taken tofefeAn American bone-marrow spe- )ital in Bred: cialtst who came here to treat raclia- I condition,ai tion victims told the Associated Press H and other experts probably lid Soeungar;: would be in Moscow for at least a although the month. Dr. Robert Gale would not s according to say how many marrow transplants he had performed. H'fhe government said radiation was holdtnr wa^ declining around the disaster ting broke site and a small group of foreign journalists will be taken to Kiev, the Ukranian capital SO miles away, i ^Jfass, the official news ageny, car- ^r^)CjC)\} ri e, l a report f rom Kiev on a tele- ^ 1 vision appearance by Anatoly Roma- ' 1 nenko, the Ukrainian health JI f (jI. minister. He said radiation levels in Kiev were slightly above normal but posed no health risks and did not re- the first |utirE quire preventive measures, could bevean^Hfass quoted Romanenko as saying ■s the space of those who took the medicine, “Such is life and there are panic- the truth.’’het prone people. They followed some now it’ssonr nasty advice, taking medicines that ^ netting the were alleged to protect them from d before mintH Texans narrowly miss Chernobyl radiation DALLAS (AP) — Two Texans who met in the So viet Union with Baptist groups, just 80 miles away from the nuclear plant fire at Chernobyl, say they are thankful that the wind wasn’t blowing their way. State health officials said J. Dalton Havard and Ja mie Jackson of Sugarland were found to be free of radiation following the disaster last week. “We thank God,” said the 63-year-old Havard, pastor of Sugar Creek Baptist Church.“No one had any idea at the time. The Soviet citizens went on with business as usual. “It’s eerie to think we might have been wading around in it (radioactivity) and no one told us or the Soviets about it,” he told The Dallas Morning News. Harvard and Jackson, 37, said they only realized the severity of the accident when Western reporters questioned them on their arrival in Paris about a possible meltdown at the nuclear plant. The pair said that after they found out about the accident, they began wondering which way the wind had been blowing on April 26. They said authorities told them the wind had been blowing in a northerly direction, instead of following its usual southerly flow. Harvard and Jackson then flew to New York and Houston and were tested by Texas Department of Health officials. radiation, and there were cases of poisoning. They are now being treated in hospitals.” Romanenko did not say how many people were poisoned or what they had taken. Like other Soviet reports on life in Kiev, the Tass dispatch said the situ ation was under control and conse quences of the accident were being dealt with appropriately. A Loreign Ministry official ad vised several Western news agencies Wednesday evening of the tour to Kiev and said it would leave late Thursday. He did not say who would be invited or whether they would be allowed near the site of the accident. He said the trip was organized in response to requests to visit the area. Such requests have been denied rou tinely. No radiation levels dangerous to health were reported in Europe. A U.S. Embassy statement said tests so far show no cause for con cern in Moscow. American diplo mats set up equipment in several lo cations to monitor radiation in the air and soil. A government statement issued through Tass said that, although ra diation around the reactor had less ened, it remained above normal. It said work was continuing to shore up the Pripyat River near the plant and protect it from contami nation, but contained little new in formation about the April 26 disas ter, which the government says killed two people and injured 204. The latest statement was read on a national television news program, which also showed footage of a few evacuees at a collective farm. The program said the evacuees were working at the farm while their own settlements were being decontami nated. An official from the affected area said tests were being conducted on water from the Pripyat, but that so far only insignificant amounts of ra diation had been found. A government official in Bonn said a West German company that specializes in nuclear cleanups had sent two remote-controlled earth moving machines to the Soviet Union on Wednesday for use at the Chernobyl plant. In Italy, Premier Bettino Craxi’s office said Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev had pledged to keep the world informed on the aftermath of the disaster. A spokesman quoted Gorbachev’s message to Craxi as saying in part: “We will inform ... in the future Italy, as we will other countries and world public opinion, on the pro gress of the work to clear up the con sequences of the damage.” Gale arrived last Friday to help Soviet doctors treat the people most seriously injured at Chernobyl. Bone marrow transplants are considered the only effective treatment for se vere radiation exposure. He said by telephone Wednesday that he has been operating on vic tims. Official government statements have said 18 of those injured were in serious condition, but have not dis closed the degree of exposure. ieople gathered hear tongu huh Cronli dinner to te Chair in iH bool of the 1® ii st in, which fr ti-nuclear organizations warn of dangers to Texas IN (AP) — A spokesman for a group that wants to close the Buth Texas Nuclear Project said Hednesday the nuclear accident in the Soviet Union “is proof that nu- is moieola: J ar technology leaves no margin I '.I' in, 11 for error, and is unforgiving in its Wcii'. SU) ' consequences.” e s sign-oil Harrison of the South Texas Ipancellation Campaign was joined at a Capitol news conference by rep- resentatives of Public Citizen and the P Austin Peace and J ustice Coalition. iGerald Thomason of the coalition |^«1 what happened at Chernobyl can happen here. ^■“We, as individuals, are not povv- ’^Bess unless we are silent,” he said. (I used to rot it () p.nu! He said the coalition “condemns the production of nuclear weapons and power and urges citizens to make their feelings and beliefs known.” According to recent congressional testimony by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission the odds are almost SO SO that a major nuclear accident will occur in the United States within the next 20 years, said spokesman Thomas Smith of Public Citizen. Smith said according to a study for the NRC, the “worst kind of nu clear accident” at the South Texas Nuclear Project — STNP — would kill 15,200 people living within 25 miles of the Bay City-area plant within a year. An additional 8,770 people would become seriously ill and damages would total over $112 billion, he said. Later simulations, using exact size data for the STNP and the Coman che Peak nuclear plant, indicated 18,000 deaths and 10,000 injuries would take place at STNP and an ac cident at Comanche Peak would ac count for 1,200 deaths and 14,000, Smith said.. “The recent accident in Russia has given the world a stark reminder that nuclear energy is not safe, and that the consequences of simple hu man error are enormous,” Smith said. “In Texas we don’t need the power that will be produced from nuclear power.” He said the Public Utility Com mission will release a study later this month that shows more power can be saved through conservation than would be generated by both nuclear plants in Texas. Harrison of the STNP cancella tion campaign noted nuclear risks, cost overruns and construction that is behind schedule, and said the PUC expects STNP electricity to cost 15 cents per kilowatt hour, or about twice the cost of fossil fuel electricity. “Don’t we have more than enough reasons now to cancel STNP?” he said. Smith urged Texans to contact the NRC, Gov. Mark White and the PUC to stop construction and licens ing of all nuclear plants in Texas un til the causes of the Soviet accident “are fully understood.” Also, he said, Texans should de mand a complete reinspection of STNP and Comanche Peak by out siders before construction resumes and that federal limits on liability for nuclear accidents be removed. Boston train crash injures about 200 BOSTON (AP) — A train packed with commuters slammed into a freight train in the fog Wednesday morning, injuring 200 people as passengers were hurled about the cars moments after the conductor yelled “Brace yourselves!” Although most suffered only cuts and bruises in the 8:40 a.m. crash of the four-car commuter train from Framingham, about 50 people were taken away on stretchers and five were seriously hurt. Witnesses said the commuter train, which was carrying about 550 people, managed to slow down just before hitting the idle freight train. Several passengers said the conductor yelled out, “Brace yourselves!” to the first car seconds before the crash. Class, shoes and other debris went Hying as the passengers were pitched forward after the crash, witnesses said. Rob Ball of W’ellesley said, “A lot of people couldn’t move. They were stuck in the aisles.” Tim Chattma of Framingham said ambulance workers wrapped wounds and calmed passengers who were “screaming . . . yelling for doctors.” Pineapples and computer tele vision screens that spilled from the freight train were strewn along the tracks. Neither train de railed. Vincent Carbona, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Trans portation Authority, which owns the commuter train operated un der contract by the Boston & Maine Railroad, said the crash oc curred near the entrance to a Gonrail freight yard. Conrail spokesman Bob Lib- kind said about a third of the freight train’s 69 cars had been moved into the yard and those bii were waiting to be switched to an other line when the crash oc curred. trough Weds ooks you W:' :>ks will be® all 845-31 hrough the?. (lommiueei' lions. t cr elections i DEPARTME' a. past pres® t uss problem; t 7 pan. in ’ 'ES: will hoid ill Doug Foil! -0730. tSHIPS: are Friday. Form o The Ba/iali days prior to ur Reserval NOW! 0 Dep. Retj ummerSW >F cubicles) nmer only? nningM Sept. 15) ^" + "Stoi S. Colleg' 79-SAFE :>nnance LatoraW BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL? Study Special Domino’s Pizza has a special for you! Anytime, day or night, during dead week and finals week you can get a small one-item pizza for only $4 95 !! Our campus stores will stay open one hour late during both weeks for your studying convenience. Remember— Domino's Pizza Delivers® Free! No coupon necessary. Not good with any other offer. 693-2335 1504 Holleman South Campus 260-9020 4407 Texas Ave. S. North Campus