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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 1987)
Friday, July 31, 1987/The Battalion/Page 5 OjI: OftN W World and Nation House OKs nuclear accident insurance policy WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ipassed 396-17 on Thursday a major over- naul of the nation’s nuclear accident insur ance system, including a tenfold increase — to $7 billion — in the shared liability of pri vate industry for a Chernobyl-like disaster lin the United States. The vote sending the legislation to the Senate followed the rejection of several amendments designed to stiffen even fur- ther the industry’s financial responsibility to victims of a catastrophic event. After heated debate, the House rejected 230-183 a proposal by Rep. Gerry Sikorski, D-Minn., to bar the payment of industry le gal fees from the insurance pool until all victims have been fully compensated. On a voice vote, it defeated an amend ment by Rep. George W. Gekas, R-Pa., that called for the $7 billion industry ceiling to be increased annually by the rate of infla tion. The bill calls for inflation adjustments every five years. In systematic fashion, the chamber beat back separate efforts Wednesday to lift the commercial ceiling entirely and to make government contractors share the burden for damages caused by accidents at the De partment of Energy’s weapons-producing nuclear facilities. The bill revamps the Price-Anderson Act, which for 30 years has required the nu clear industry to assume sole responsibility for the damages caused by a major release of radiation or other serious accident, in ex change for capping its financial vulnerabil ity for any single event. The no-fault system accords the public the advantage of expe dited payments, rather than resorting to tort actions in the courts. The Price-Anderson Act expires Aug. 1. While all commercial nuclear plants now operating or under construction would continue to be covered under the old $700 million pool, no future plants could partici- E ate without the renewal legislation. Some •epartment of Energy operations involving the production of nuclear weapons could be threatened as well. The legislation, in addition to covering commercial facilities, would establish an identical $7 billion ceiling on damages the Energy Department would pay victims of an accident at government-owned nuclear facilities. Energy Department contractors, currently in line for $92 billion worth of business, would not be liable for any of those expenses, a feature widely criticized by consumer and taxpayer groups. Rep. Dennis Eckart, D-Ohio, and others cited General Accounting Office estimates that an accident similar to the Chernobyl meltdown in the Soviet Union • last year could cost upwards of $15 billion in the United States — perhaps many times that amount if bad weather applied. But Rep. Norman Lent, R-N.Y., argued that U.S. plants are much safer than Cher nobyl, and “it’s not at all clear” that a nu clear accident in America would cause more than $7 billion in damages. Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead, R-Calif., noted that only $50 million has been paid out in the 30 years the law has been on the books. Under the renewal bill, nuclear utilities still would be required to buy the maximum amount of private insurance available, now amounting to about $160 million per plant. Should an accident exhaust that coverage, the entire industry would share equally in paying for damages up to the $7 billion limit, with each of the 110 plants contribut ing roughly $63 million. Each plant’s pay ments could be stretched out over several years at about 2 percent of their average an nual operating costs. lescopet ic Com- Shultz, Soviet foreign minister plan September meeting attalioj daysk 17, ed g n studem I at Waltr: n All-Dn i of the \ i tabbed iti veral tiro > protectb d Eaton < ospital lit? on Tfiuffi lid. Eaton, i .tic stqr ;’s goint::: WASHINGTON (AP) — Secre- Itary of State George P. Shultz and I Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. I Shevardnadze have arranged a j three-day meeting here in mid-Sep- I tember that could set the stage for a I visit to America by General Secre- | tary Mikhail S. Gorbachev before the | first snowfall. Their principal tasks in the Sept. ' 15-17 talks, announced Thursday by . the White House, are to plan a sum- Imit agenda and to try to resolve I whatever dif ferences might stand in * the way of a treaty banning U.S. and | Soviet medium-range nuclear mis- | siles. ! Shultz and Shevardnadze will I “look for promising areas of future ( Iprogress” in U.S.-Soviet relations, State Department spokesman Charles E. Redman said. The two [sides have made headway on a mis- hile-reduction treaty “and we want to keep up the momentum,” he said. In principle, Gorbachev accepted [Presiaent Reagan’s invitation for a [Washington summit when they first I met in Geneva, Switzerland, in No- [vember 1985. But the Soviet leader [has delayed setting a date. “Gener ally, without reason, I do not go any- Soviet negotiotor colls U.S. Yigid' in orms talks MOSCOW (AP) — Veteran Soviet arms control negotiator Viktor P. Karpov said Thursday the United States has grown more rigid in refus ing to resolve outstanding issues as the superpowers draw closer to an accord to reduce nuclear arsenals. Karpov, now a senior Foreign Ministry adviser on national secu rity, told the Associated Press the United States “is inventing some pretext” to prevent effective verifi cation of a treaty that would elimi nate all medium-range nuclear weapons on both sides. “There were many ups and downs in our relations with the United where, particularly America,” he said last April in Moscow. A treaty scrubbing all U.S. inter mediate-range missiles now de ployed in Britain, West Germany, Italy and Belgium, and comparable Soviet rockets trained on Western Europe and Asia is nearing comple- States in Geneva, and sometimes I have the impression that the nearer the possibility of an agreement, the more rigid becomes the United States’ position,” said Karpov, who first met U.S. negotiators across the bargaining table in 1969. “There is always a search for some additional details, additional provi sions that won’t help agreement but would introduce some oreaks in the negotiations,” the 56-year-old Kar pov said" as he reviewed the various sticking points that still separate the two sides. Karpov insisted the Soviet Union is prepared to sign an accord but is tion at the bargaining table in Ge neva. A signing ceremony could crown a Washington summit, the third be tween Reagan and Gorbachev. Be sides their Geneva session, they met last October in Reykjavik, Iceland, and tentatively agreed to reduce determined to ensure the elimina tion of all nuclear warheads under discussion without “any way to cir cumvent an agreement.” He reiterated the Soviet view that the United States may not retain nu clear warheads for 72 West German Pershing 1A missiles, saying that the warheads — if not the missiles them selves — are covered by the U.S. proposal to destroy all short- and medium-range nuclear weapons. “They speak now of their obliga tions, long-standing obligations, to the Federal Republic (of West Ger many) and because of that tradi tional cooperation and so on, these U.S. and Soviet long-range bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear submarines by 50 percent. But progress in Geneva is slow. On Wednesday, Soviet negotiators said a deal depended on significant restrictions in Reagan’s Strategic De fense Initiative, known popularly as warheads shouldn’t be touched,” Karpov said of the U.S. negotiating position. “For us here, the heart of the matter is there shouldn’t be any way to circumvent an agreement.” Retaining the Pershing 1A war heads would be a clear violation of the “double zero” proposal origi nally put forward by the United States, he added. The United States and West Ger many maintain that because the mis siles belong to the West Germans, neither they nor their U.S. warheads should be considered part of the su perpower talks now under way. “star wars.” Its aim is a space-based shield against missile attack which the Sovi ets and many American critics say is barred by a 1972 U.S.-Soviet treaty. The White Flouse statement said only: “It has been agreed that Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevard nadze and Secretary of State George Shultz will meet in Washington on Sept. 15-17, 1987.” The U.N. General Assembly be gins its annual two-week session on Sept. 15, the opening day of the Shultz-Shevardnadze talks. The two officials are expected to attend some of the meetings, and could resume their own discussions in New York. The major obstacles to an arms control agreement is a Soviet de mand, rejected by the Reagan ad ministration, that American war heads for 72 medium-range West German missiles be destroyed. So viet negotiator Alexei Obukhov said Wednesday in Geneva that the United States had not offered com promises on that and other issues of concern to Moscow. State Department spokesman Charles E. Redman emphasized Tuesday that Shultz would not con fine his discussions with Shevard nadze to arms control, but would also bring up U.S. concerns about human rights in the Soviet Union and a number of regional disputes. In an unexpected development Thursday, Kenneth L. Adelman, submitted his resignation to Presi dent Reagan as director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. d doctonr .o Lent!! ;le anil'? i Waltn: i was Ei ( upafiM its. :■ dude McDtef ; had ak hed upi : eked it oaf 1 runmci re er i pany. )., becaus pelling 0 ' on s havesait onio me?' iall-sto Id acres he wanK id decline had bee? iudweiset moreT-i pope w' 1 ?' -loom me* irofilc c cross will jack. is designs L. Lope 1, if illusif tnny signs Inc. and rcy or >r in i 110 ' lay bo ^ e unstick brings had bee ias anno 1 mayoU 0,788 voi' .63 pe rce: Jidates ias chanf > very d' 1, ,vebee"' 1 she wa»; ■pendet 1 ' ;s future' Jury convicts man of giving woman bomb SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A man who delivered a bomb hid den in a bouquet to the estranged wife of his alleged homosexual lover was convicted Thursday of the bombing that injured two women, but acquitted of making the bomb. A federal jury deliberated four hours before finding Shaun Small guilty of knowingly posses sing the bomb and damaging fed eral property. Small, 27, also was charged with making and knowingly pos sessing the plastic pipe bomb that exploded Nov. 17, injuring Mel anie Pilaski, and a co-worker, Pamela Castro, at the General Services Administration. By acquitting Small of the third charge, the jury raised the ques tion of the possible involvement of his employer, Peter Pilaski, whose wife had filed for divorce the previous month and was seek ing $1.5 million. Pilaski, a wealthy real estate owner who had left for his native West Germany 10 days before the bombing last Nov. 17, has not been charged, and has denied any wrongdoing. He refused to testify as a defense witness during the trial, citing his right against self-incrimination. He also has denied statements by prosecution and defense law yers, and by Mrs. Pilaski in her testimony, that he and Small were lovers. Small’s lawyers admitted he donned a wig and a white uni form when he delivered the bou quet of dried flowers to the office where Mrs. Pilaski worked as a contracting officer. Reagan to have third surgery on nose to remove cancerous tissue growth WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Reagan, afflicted with skin can cer for the third time in two years, will have more tissue surgically re moved from his nose today at Be- thesda Naval Hospital, it was an nounced Thursday. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said tests on a lesion re moved Wednesday from the tip of Reagan’s nose revealed it to be a “basal cell epithelioma” and that “further excision of tissue” was re quired. Because of the chance that he might remain overnight at the sub urban Washington hospital, Reagan canceled his normal weekend trip to Camp David, Md., Fitzwater said. “The president is in excellent health,” he added. Basal cell epithelioma is the same type of skin cancer as basal cell car cinoma, and two such cancers were removed from Reagan’s nose in 1985. Fitzwater gave no reson for making a distinction, but the White House in the past has been sensitive about reporting of Reagan’s health and physicians say such usage is common if one wants to avoid the word “carcinoma,” which is more widely known as a term for cancer. Reagan, addressing a group of anti-abortion activists earlier in the day, joked that the bandage on his nose was a “billboard that says . . . stay out of the sun.” Later, the president told journal ists and a group of exchange stu dents from Central America that he felt “fine.” “Oh, my nose gets laughed at,” he said when asked if the skin cancer on his nose was a serious matter. Asked whether he was worried about his hospital visit, Reagan re plied, “No more than about any other tomorrow.” The president’s skin cancers are considered rarely dangerous and have no relation to his 1985 bout with colon cancer. About two to three milimeters of tissue were removed from the tip of Reagan’s nose on Wednesday, Fitz water said, and physicians deter mined that they would “have to go back and take a little more” to be sure all the cancerous cells had been removed. Reagan’s personal physician, Col. John Hutton, and two other physi cians — Adm. William Narva, Con gress’ attending physician, and Capt. Theodore Parlette, the chief of dermatology at Bethesda — will be present, Fitzwater said. Wednesday marked the third time the 76-year-old president has undergone such a procedure while in the White House. In 1985, he had basal cell carcinomas removed from the right side of his nose on July 30, and again on Oct. 10. Studies have shown that the type of skin cancer that has afflicted the president is especially prevalent in whites who live in sunny places and people of Celtic ancestry — such as Reagan — have a particular suscep tibility. Cargo plane crashes on crowded highway MEXICO CITY (AP) — A four-engine cargo plane crashed onto cars on a crowded highway Thursday, rammed a restaurant, exploded and caught fire, officials said. The Red Cross said at least 30 people were killed and 12 or more were injured. A spokesman at the capital’s international air port, from which the plane took off two minutes before slamming onto an eight-lane highway on the city’s western outskirts, said the Boeing 377 propeller-driven craft was carrying eight people and 18 horses. The plane came down into bumper-to- bumper rush-hour traffic on the highway to To luca and smashed into a restaurant, officials said. Rueben Ramiriz, a Red Cross ambulance offi cial, gave the tentative casualty figures. He said at least five cars were destroyed by fire after the plane exploded. Police closed the highway in both directions. “Down the street there is a house where some Americans live. ... It went over behind the house and then there was a big cloud of black smoke. ” — Elaine Carey, Lomas Sante Fe resident Airport officials said the Miami-bound plane was operated by Belize Air International. Residents of a neighborhood in the plane’s flight path said they heard an explosion and then saw heavy smoke rising into the air from a distance. They also said the plane rocked from side to side before crashing onto the highway, clipping power lines and blacking out surrounding neighborhoods. Elaine Carey, who lives in the residential Lo mas Santa Fe neighborhood, said she and her neighbors ran outside when they heard the plane buzzing over their homes. “It was obviously laboring,” she said. “It looked like it wasn’t going to make it and it didn’t. “Down the street there is a house where some Americans live. It was at their window level, try ing to climb. “It barely made it over the house, and crashed a couple of blocks away. “It went over behind the house and then there was a big cloud of black smoke.” Airport officials said the plane crashed at 5:03 p.m. (6:03 p.m, CST). Toluca, capital of adjacent Mexico state, is about 30 miles from the capital. Researcher discovers new drugs WASHINGTON (AP) — A re searcher at the National Institutes of Health, whose interest was pi qued by the fast-healing frogs in his laboratory, has discovered a previously unknown family of natural antibiotics, according to a published report. Dr. Michael Zasloff, chief of the genetics branch at the Na tional Institute of Child Health and Human Development, began conducting research to determine why African clawed frogs were able to recover quickly from sur gical cuts they received as part of other research projects at the in stitute, the Washington Post re ported in its Thursday editions. Within a matter of months, Zasloff found a new family of powerful antibiotics, which he named “magainins,” from the Hebrew word for “shield.” An announcement of the dis covery was expected to be made today, and a paper describing his works will appear in the August 15 issue of the journal Proceed ings of the National Academy of Science, the Post reported. The magainins can kill a vari ety of invaders, including bacte ria, fungi and parasites, the news paper said. They also may be useful in work against some vi ruses and cancers. Zasloff had a biochemical firm manufacture synthetic versions of the antibiotics, which worked as well as did the natural ones, the newspaper said. The synthetic versions have since been patented by the government and a drug company will be licensed to de velop and test them as drugs, the Post said. Are you reading this? This could be an ad for your business Think about it... 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