The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 26, 1987, Image 7

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PACK YOUR BAGS!
PARENTS' WEEKEND
APRIL 8-10
MAKE YOUR HOTEL
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at the hospiul
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Makes it
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October 29
Make it work
Wang Laboratories, one of the for you at Wang!!
leading computer companies, will
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Monday, October 26, 1987/The Battalion/Page 7
Recruitment
(Continued from page 1)
a higher institution is proof that the
BEST program is needed.
“With BEST, we are saying that
colleges can find talent out there in
the junior institutions by identifying
black and Hispanic students early
enough in college to ensure better
academic and financial planning for
transfer to a university,” she said.
Early identification of talented
minority students also is the objec
tive of a minority outreach program
sponsored jointly by A&M and the
University of Texas.
Ed Cooper, director of A&M’s Of
fice of School Relations, said, “We’ve
heard the same old story everywhere
we go. We haven’t orchestrated well
enough to motivate Hispanics and
blacks early to prepare for college.
“From an early age, they don’t
feel they can succeed in college for
whatever reasons. So they say, ‘Why
take all the hard courses?’ They just
take home ec, FFA, the easy courses.
But in their senior year, they change
their minds and now they wish they
had taken math and English. But
they haven’t, and they’re not eligible
for admission.”
Branch offices of the outreach
program to be established in Hous
ton, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio
and McAllen will look among sev
enth- and eighth-graders for signs of
high academic potential, Cooper
said.
“The first question is, ‘Can we mo
tivate them?’ ” he said. “Do they
show signs of interest in continuing
their education? And then we ask,
‘Have they shown some academic
progress in their young life?’ ”
Working with teachers, counsel
ors and school administrators, the
outreach program will attempt to
motivate the junior high school stu
dents to begin thinking about their
future and to prepare for college ad
mission requirements early, Cooper
said.
Representatives from both A&M
and UT will work with the schools,
presenting role models for the stu
dents, providing motivational pro
grams and tutorial services, and in
forming students of standardized
testing procedures, admission re
quirements and financial aid oppor
tunities, he said.
High school students will be en
couraged to formulate a “degree
plan” to monitor their academic pro
gress until graduation, he said,
which will indicate the college prepa
ratory classes required by different
universities. This will help the stu
dent plan ahead “so he doesn’t wake
up in the twelfth grade sorry he
didn’t do that,” he said.
Cooper emphasized that students
involved in the outreach program
would not be guaranteed admission
to any school. Students in the pro
gram are selectively screened to en
sure academic potential and the mo
tivation to succeed, he said, but
admission requirements still must be
met.
Although A&M and UT sponsor
the outreach program, participants
are not required to attend either uni
versity, Cooper said.
“If you think we’re trying to steer
them to maroon or orange, you’re
wrong,” he said. “We’re just trying to !
get them to college.”
Once in college, most minority
students remain until graduation, he
said, but getting them there has been
the chronic problem. Now, however,
increased action in minority pro
grams should help the situation, he
said.
“For about 10 years, we’ve been
saying that it’s important to do these
things,” Cooper said. “Now, the cli
mate is just right.
“We’ve been hearing this for so:
long, but we just happened to say the !
right thing at the right time. It’s time
to move — it’s not too late.
“You have to prove yourself. Let’s
stop pointing fingers and start join
ing hands.”
Deposits
(Continued from page 1)
not to cancel. He said there is a
great possibility they will lose
their money, but he will not know
until after Nov. 6.
He said if a student does cancel
and decides to move back on cam
pus and there are no spaces avail
able, the studenf will forfeit his
deposit. Even if there are spaces,
the student is not guaranteed the
same dorm room.
Jacqui Sentmanat, a Mosher
Hall resident adviser, said the
slight change in the contract
seems unfair to students since
they don’t know if they will re
ceive their $200 refund or not.
She said it is another way to
“leave students up in the air.”
“Last semester students were
told that they were going to lose
their deposit if they moved off
campus for the spring semester
and this is kind of a way to say
‘you may get it back but don’t
count on it,’ ” she said.
Murray said almost every
school in America has the two-se-
mester contract and A&M was
one of the last universities to
adopt this policy.
“It does certainly decrease the
flexibility students have, although
we are hoping students will de
cide to plan ahead a little better
by deciding in March to renew
the contract or not,” he said.
A&M uses nuclear reactor to provide
help with research, training in Texas
By Marie L. McLeod
Reporter
Some newcomers to Texas A&M
think the University is on fire when
they see the black clouds billowing
over the west side of the campus.
Then someone tells them about
Brayton Fireman Training Field.
But many other unknown research
and training facilities exist at the
west end of Jersey Street, including a
nuclear reactor.
The Nuclear Science Center, a
part of the Texas Engineering Ex
tension ^ Service, operates the A&M
reactor.
“We are surprised at the number
of people who are unaware of the re
actor,” says John Krohn, assistant di
rector of the Nuclear Science Cen
ter.
The only other school in the state
that has a nuclear reactor is the Uni
versity of Texas, he says. UT’s reac
tor runs with 10 percent the amount
of power A&M’s does, but UT is in
the process of constructing a new
building and upgrading its reactor.
Construction on the A&M reactor
began in the late 1950s and it began
operation in January 1962, Krohn
says. The reactor has a maximum
steady-state power of one megawatt,
the highest power it is licensed to op
erate at on a daily basis.
The reactor has a variety of uses,
he says. It provides A&M research
ers with the capability of performing
neutron activation analysis, radioac
tive tracer studies and radiation
damage and exposure studies.
“Also for the University, it is a
training tool,” Krohn says.
Nuclear engineering students can
perform labs using the reactor and
observe the principles they have
learned in class in operation, he says.
Students, usually physics and
chemistry majors, come in from
other schools, such as Baylor Uni
versity, Sam Houston State Univer
sity and McClendon County Com
munity College, to tour the facilities,
see a demonstration and observe
neutron activation analysis.
Neutron activation analysis is a
method of trace-element determin
ation. Basically, a sample is exposed
to neutron radiation from the reac
tor, which makes trace elements ra
dioactive. Then, by looking at the
type of radiation a trace element
gives off and its intensity, Krohn
says one can determine the isotopes
of an element in the sample and how
much of the element exists.
Sul Ross State University and the
University of Texas-El Paso both
have neutron activation analysis lab
oratories, he says, but they don’t
have reactors and, therefore, rely on
the A&M reactor to provide the neu
trons needed to irradiate their sam
ples.
“In addition, within the commu
nity there are a lot of research activ
ities that need the capabilities of a
nuclear reactor to produce radioiso
topes (radioactive forms of el
ements) or for other reasons,”
Krohn says.
At the reactor, workers make a lot
of radioisotopes that are used as tra
cers. He says some are used by plant
scientists in fertilizer utilization stud
ies while some animal scientists use
tracers for determining the way
cattle utilize the different nutrients
in grass. The scientists put non-ra
dioactive tracers in the grass. After
the cattle eat the grass and digest it,
their by-products are sent to the re
actor in small vials to be irradiated.
Then the researchers can study the
sample, he says.
Krohn says most of the tracers
produced are used in the oil indus
try for things such as well-logging
jobs and in chemical industries.
The nuclear industry itself also
benefits from the reactor.
Dr. Jon A. Reuscher, director.of
Nuclear Research Reactor Pro
grams, says another service involves
studying, on a small scale, accident
phenomena that might occur in a big
plant.
A&M also uses the facilities for
training operators for industrial
work with reactors. The trainees get
a feel for the controls while starting
the reactor up and shutting it down,
a process that is too expensive to do
on an industrial-type system, he says.
“The uses are endless,” Reuscher
says. Besides industry, the reactor
provides aid to doctors.
Krohn says there are a lot of doc
tors using radioisotopes for diagnos
ing and treating patients. The center
provides medical radioisotopes to
two hospitals in the Texas Medical
Center in Houston.
Doctors in M.D. Anderson Hospi
tal use the reactor facilities on a
steady basis for cancer treatment, he
says.
Also, as an alternative to surgery,
Methodist Hospital uses the radio
isotopes to help treat a form of ar
thritis of the knee.
The researchers always are work
ing with doctors in the medical cen
ter and have been talking with Bay
lor Medical School representatives
about different possibilities. Krohn
says there are many other medical
applications they hope to get in
volved with.
As for the safety of the reactor, it
operates under a set of technical
specifications that place restrictions
on reactor operations.
Krohn says the guidelines are
worked out between the University,
the Texas Engineering Experiment
Service and the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. In addition, it was de
signed and built with safety in mind.
“The designing of the fuel is such
that, even if what could be the worst
or the most dangerous were to hap
pen, if all the water drained out of
our pool and exposed our fuel to air,
it would not fail nor would it melt,”
Krohn says.
It is designed so that as the fuel
gets hotter, the reactor tends to turn
itself off so it won’t cause a melt
down, Krohn says.
“That was one of the problems in
the Chernobyl accident in the Soviet
Union,” Krohn says. “As the reactor
power increased, it tended to go to
increased powers, the opposite of ■
here.”
Several commissions are set up to
oversee everything that goes on at
the reactor.
Krohn says a staff of health physi-;
cists, who are employees of the Ra
diation Safety Office on campus,-
preside over the center’s daily opera-: ■
tions, such as the handling and pro- ;
duction of radioactive materials for \
users.
“They ensure we’re doing it in a;
safe and competent manner,” Krohn
says. “And they have the power to
tell us not to do something if they
feel that it is not safe.”
Actually, he says, the safety office
monitors anyone on campus that
uses radioactive materials and any
one who plans to work with the
materials must get a license from the
office by going through its training '
courses.
The center must get approval
from the Reactor Safety Board, an.
on-campus group of faculty mem-;
hers knowledgeable in the health sci
ence and nuclear science fields, for ;
any modifications to the facility, new!
experiments or changes in operating
procedures, Krohn says.
The federal government joins the
other groups to ensure the safety of
the reactor. The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission periodically inspects -
the reactor site. Krohn says all oper
ators at the center are licensed by the I
NRC after passing operating, writ- ;
ten and oral exams.
Funding for the Nuclear Science
Center comes from the extension
service, the University, commercial
customers and a Department of En-
ergy grant, Krohn says.
The center’s goals are to continue
servicing the University and its
needs and to upgrade the reactor
and support equipment. It would
also like to add new experimental fa
cilities and revive some old ones, he
says.
The reactor uses highly-enriched
fuel and the NRC ruled that all re
search reactors must convert to low-
enriched fuel. So, as the Energy De
partment makes money available to
them, reactor officials hope to con
vert fuels while upgrading the reac
tor to two megawatts, Krohn says.
Anyone can tour the facilities but
Krohn encourages people to call
ahead.
“ . . Within the community there are a lot of research
activities that need the capabilities of a nuclear reactor
to produce radioisotopes ...”
—John Krohn, Nuclear Science Center assistant
director
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