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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 1986)
Page 4/The Battalion/Wednesday, May 21, 1986 World and Nation Official: Chernobyl being readied for restart MOSCOW (AP) — Izvestia quoted a member of the government investigating commission Tuesday as saying the three remaining nuclear reactors at Chernobyl are being pre pared to resume operation. He did not say when they would restart. The government newspaper also said radioactive waste from the April 26 disaster at the Ukrainian power plant would be buried where a new reactor was to have been built. It said radiation remained very high in parts of the plant, but quoted an official overseeing the cleanup as saying the temperature of the de stroyed reactor had declined to about 390 degrees Fahrenheit. The last report on the reactor temperature, given Saturday by Deputy Premier Ivan Silaev, put it in the range of 390 to 480 degrees. Another newspaper acknowl edged that many residents of Kiev, 80 miles south of Chernobyl, tried to flee the city of 2.4 million after the reactor explosion and fire. It blamed their fear on “enemy radio voices” from the West. The Soviet Union did not ac knowledge the accident until 68 hours after it occurred, when high levels of radiation had been re ported in Scandinavia and Sweden demanded an explanation. The gov ernment gave little information ini tially. According to Izvestia, Silaev’s place on the government commis sion investigating the accident and A government newspaper said radiation remained high in parts of the plant, but quoted an official as saying the destroyed reac tor had cooled to 390°F. June 15, and was getting the other three reactors ready for a restart. Izvestia opened its report by say ing no one could go near the No. 4 reactor and the ruined building that housed it because of the high radia tion. It said a 19-ton bulldozer flown in from Chelyabinsk, an industrial city in the Ural Mountains, was helping build a heap of radioactive waste that would be buried where the plant’s fifth reactor was to have been constructed. disaster contributed to public con cern. Valentin Falin, head of the gov ernment news agency Novosti, said in an interview published May 12 by the West German news magazine Dev Spiegel that hindsight indicated it would have been better to tell the world immediately. The account did not say when the cleanup would be completed or esti mate when the 92,000 people evac uated from an 18-mile radius could return home. Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorba chev, however, defended the Krem lin’s handling of the matter in his First public statement about it, made May 14 on national television. supervising the cleanup has been taken by Lev Voronin, another dep uty premier who heads the state sup ply committee. No explanation was given for the change. The paper quoted Voronin as say ing the cleanup team has an opera tions program extending at least to The report of fear in Kiev by the newspaper Sovietskaya Rossiya fol lowed a comment Sunday in Pravda that, “in the first days (after the di saster), there were some vibrations in the (public) mood that were aided by the delayed information.” Genrikh Borovik, a television commentator, bristled at suggestions from West Germany that the Soviet Union pay for damage caused by ra diation the Chernobyl fire spewed over Europe. Pravda also suggested in a report May 9 that the delay in reporting the He said the Soviet people would have as much right, if not more, to demand reparations for “the moral losses” suffered from what he called the distorted coverage of the disaster in the West, especially the United States. Company officials quote as admitting mistake in PI? WASHINGTON (AP) Rocket company officials were quoted as saying on Tuesday that they made a public relations mis take in assigning new job respon sibilities to two engineers who op posed the launch of the ill-fated Challenger. But senior executives of Mor ton Thiokol Inc., reportedly in sisted in private meetings with members of Congress that their actions did not amount to retribu tion against the two, and said they have no present plans to rescind the reassignments. Two senators who met with the executives, Sens. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and Donald Riegle, D- Mich., said they were “reserving judgment” on the company’s as sertion that it had not disciplined engineers Allan McDonald and ftoger Boisjoly. “It is essential that people who come forward to tell the truth not be intimidated,” said Riegle. Added Gorton, “We would be tolid 3wc By 1 extremely disturbed if lhatv to be the case.” Gorton said that the comp! executives said they “did noij tend and do not intend tol mote" either of the two ei^ neers. lint asked whetherthefi would be given their old ;| back, Gorton said Morton ill kol officials said they did ml want to make further persoi yp, t . poty moves" until a presidentialo,M eason mission investigating the ownec i a Lii-.-i •!' i nlciu issues a ftijdjiiy aboi next month. ■ at ()l s < 1 he Challenger blew up lc i seconds into its llight on Jan. SWC regu and investigators say the an ex; i s y&M was < a used by a leak in theJj-f 0 i m a i n ..I the right hand rocket g ,, The rocket was manufacture: g r lyi p l v ^ Morton Thiokol. ■vVernig Both McDonald and Bo:q a y f rom t( lalcl Irsi 11 led |Hll)li( l\ dial Jj e j>| aN ( ., I opposed the oecision to 1>m j) ( , S ( M ',| SI ■ii. ( h. 111 (• 11 y < • i . and the tw.. , me S( h( „ sequently were given new p qq 1( j sibilities. ipprd pasi j?enuig roui Damage slows typhoon relief POR I MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) — Typhoon Namu may have left more than one- third of the Solomon Islands’ population homeless, a news re port said, and widespread dam age forced the postponement of foreign relief ef f orts Tuesday. There has been no official fig ure on the death toll or number of people made homeless in the Pacif ic chain. The Australian As sociated Press, in a report from Port Moresby, quoted unidenti fied relief workers in estimating 90,000 people were homeless and 50 others missing. Officials said the storm roared in Monday packing winds of 115 mph that downed power lines, uprooted trees, and tore roofs off homes. Central American accord ‘within reach t 8h) and 7 WASHING EON (AP) — A group of more than 100 lawmakers said Tuesday that a Gefitral American peace agreement which meets U.S. “legitimate security considerations” is f inally within reach. But the State Department accused Nicaragua of failing to negotiate in good faith. This came in the wake of a Penta gon study which said the United States eventually might have to send up to 100,000 troops to fight against Nicaragua as a consequence of the peace agreement, which it said could not be enforced. As the peace talks continued in Panama, Charles Redman, the State Department spokesman, said Nica ragua “is asking its neighbors to buy a pig in a poke” because it wants to defer some key negotiations until af ter the treaty is signed. Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., who obtained 101 signatures for a letter urging President Reagan to support peace negotiations, told a news conference the administration is deeply divided over whether to support the agreement that appears to be emerging. “There is a furious debate in the administration,” Gephardt said. “They don’t know what they want to do.” He said presidential envoy Philip Habib is actively supporting the peace negotiations but is meeting re sistance within the administration. The so-called Contadora group of Latin American nations is proposing a June 6 signing of a peace agreement by Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Guate mala. While the United States is not a party to the negotiations, its support is crucial because one aim of the treaty would be to halt U.S. support for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, denied there was any disagreement in the administration over the peace negotiations. But a disagreement involving the Pentagon surfaced after it released its study saying American troops might eventually have to be sent to Central America to fight because the proposed peace agreement probably would result in Nicaraguan cheat ing. State Department spokesman Redman denounced the study and the decision to release it. “It has no standing as a U.S. gov ernment document,” he said at the department’s regular news briefing. “It is an internal study written under contract and released without au thority.” Speakes also cast doubt on whether the study ' j any weight in the administration, saying no one “in the top echelon” had seen it. In their letter, the 101 members of Congress urged Reagan to take a “step for peace” and support the proposed Contadora peace agreement. The letter asked Reagan to sup port the plan by agreeing to nego tiate directly with Nicaragua on is sues dividing the two countries. Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., chair man of the House Intelligence Com mittee, told a news conference that “enormous progress has been made in negotiating a Contadora agreement” that bars military advis ers and bases from Central America, ends support for insurgent strains the size of armiesac vides for internal reconclia N icaragua. Hamilton said U.S.-Nia negotiations should focus on ing Nicaragua’s commitment “certain external conduc United States finds object! and, “in return, we will pen Sandinistas to exist.” The signers of the letter was sent to the White Hous day and released Tuesday,; opposed U.S. aid to the anti- ment Contra rebels in Nicara The Pentagon report, r Tuesday, said if cheating occt United States’ allies in the probably would not react for three years. Hd to ea Hi in the ollege Wor A&M will egional in [i seventh hursday a lorida Sta orth Carol •urteam it .;Tjhe wim id the Coll Barry, 10 v e-hit shut ggtes to th< iHpe key as the fact H-— i)a\ id Ralph K •gthe gam< “I didn’t °wn tonig iod locatio raf out. h ‘tcher) can !d called a : the first id he hit a ‘“The firs tuggled. ] awn. Latet ; r,” Jeff King their 1 In the Heart of Brazos County / 36,000 students / 9,700 faculty 7 Free The Battalion 216 Reed McDonald (409) 845-2611