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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 8, 1990)
eTMtSTi^D !i. rie tsattalion /ol.89 No.154 USPS 045360 6 Pages College Station, Texas I — — —— Superconducting super collider ' Finances and projects finally take shape for the scientific tool. State & Local Section page 3 Friday, June 8,1990 :«De Klerk raises | ^emergency state, lifts restrictions a thret saw pd port. Hi te mor- 1 of abi JOHANNES BURG, South Africa ; sofJ(AP)— President F.W. de Klerk on ibouiMiursday ended the 4-year-old na- returrtf ^onal state of emergency that had ■eluded some of the harshest politi- toniiirjo a l restrictions ever imposed by the enSMCOimtry’s white rulers. ■ The end of the national emer- fear aiii!g enc y helps pave the way for black- etheij white negotiations on dismantling States apartheid. But de Klerk said vio- ■nce-torn Natal Province will re- Tayloil a ‘ n un der emergency rule. mtofJ “The net result of the lifting of ut jtj|. the state of emergency is that one of )rt Dot the main stumbling blocks (to consti- ■tional negotiations) has been re- Tre U M° ve d,” de Klerk told Parliament in iana ? : Cape fown. ■ despit! In Paris, African National Con- ress leader Nelson Mandela said de Jerk’s action was “a victory for the ople ... both black and white.” But he said he would continue to I miiy adedlL urge Western governments to main- pin economic sanctions against ■mth Africa, arid he criticized the ■tendon of the state of emergency in Natal. ■ The White House welcomed de Klerk’s move, calling it a sign of “the remarkable progress” in recent ■onths in South Africa. ■ Right-wing whites, who have op- : Hased recent reforms, criticized the ■tion. Ap\_p. During the state of emergency, [aupr more than 30,000 activists, most of ■ ■em black, were detained without P charge for varying lengths of time. ed Thousands more went into hiding after former President P.W. Botha imposed the restrictions on Tune 12, 1986. About 300 activists were being held under the emergency regula tions as of Thursday, most of them in Natal. In announcing the end of the state of emergency, de Klerk also held out the prospect for other re forms. He said the government was con sidering changes to security laws that “could possibly inhibit the free con duct of peaceful politics” and said he was taking unspecified actions that would allow thousands of exiles to return home. The ANC says it has more than 15,000 exiled members. De Klerk also said that as a “good will gesture” he would release 48 prisoners convicted of politically mo tivated crimes. The ANC has said the lifting of the emergency, the release of politi cal prisoners and the return of exiles are the main obstacles to full nego tiations. De Klerk defended the decision to keep Natal under emergency rule, saying the violence there “cannot be countered with the ordinary laws of the land.” More than 4,000 blacks have been killed in factional fighting in Natal since 1986, including some 500 who died in the first three months of this year. yAV : ' ; - : s ; ' Photo by Thomas J. Lavin The Rugby Club perfects its skills on the Polo field Thursday afternoon. Members of the club also play for the A&M Rugby Team. able TV system considers removing channels, adding FOX :le costs id Sail' bines esider. I taurar,:! regioi ik coni' i nx wilt I ines as| E KEVIN M. HAMM k)f The Battalion Staff xiatic: prop| TCA Cable TV is considering adopting achineirtV.0 nev.’ channels into its cable family, but but olhUo avoid a rate increase they must disown io were|two others. The new channels are a FOX network Jhannel, KWKT-FOX 44 out of Waco, and 20-Vision KTXH out of Houston. FOX 44 would probably replace CBS af- liate KHOU of Houston (cable channel 7), le which is unnecessary because of the local over toBlBS affiliate, KBTX Channel 3 in Bryan. I Houston’s 20-Vision would probably re- monthi lilace cable channel 10 KHTV of Houston, ’s fiftb-ifoth ofwhich are distant independent sta- nvolves lions. s, Sait- i Any changes will he implemented July 1. ■ TCA General Manager Randy Rogers es- :a-Colf timated 70 percent of KHTV’s program- ntified,Bring is available on other cable channels. Onego: He said five and one-half hours of lispute KHTV’s programming is available in the ed thalBame time slots on Dallas’ KTVT, cable rredto-rShannel 2, both ofwhich are owned by the le than'; 6 6 Fhe possibility similar cost would same company. Rog ers said other dupli cated programs were available on other channels also. “That’s certainly a factor in why we’re looking at this (KHTV) channel,” he said. In June 1989, Cooke Cablevision, ——— then the cable company in the area, dropped 20-Vision from its ranks. Many viewers were angered at the deletion. According to a survey conducted in July 1989 by the local newspaper. The Press, 99.2 percent of respondents wanted 20-Vi- sion back. Cooke, however, stood by its de cision. TCA Cable bought the local system from Cooke in July 1989. On May 31, TCA sent out its own survey asking subscribers if they would like to see 20-Vision replace KHTV. The results are still being tabulated. TCA also surveyed consumers in late of adding te channel by dropping a channel of allow TCA to get 20-Vision back without a rate increase.” — Randy Rogers, TCA general manager April, including the form with the May bills, about the possibility of adding a FOX network channel to its lineup. More than 84 percent of the respondents were in favor of the addition. Rogers estimated 20 percent of TCA’s subscribers are students. Although sub scriptions fluctuate, he said TCA currently serves about 28,000 subscribers. “We got quite a few student opinions,” he said. “I think we got a real good cross sec tion on our FOX survey.” Rogers said the new distant independent station, 20-Vision, must replace an existing distant independent station or the cost to subscribers would increase. “The prohibitive copyright costs asso ciated with 20-Vi sion have not changed since Cooke Cablevision dropped the chan nel in June 1989,” Rogers said. “But ■ the possibility of adding the channel by dropping a channel of similar cost would allow TCA to get 20- Vision back without a rate increase.” The three distant independent stations TCA currently carries are Houston’s KHTV, Chicago’s WGN and Atlanta’s TBS. “Those are definitely the most expensive channels we have,” Rogers said. “It’s a sub stantial cost for us.” He added the copyright costs are the re sult of a Federal Communications Commis sion regulation. Rogers said it makes more sense to re place KHTV rather than drop WGN or TBS, neither of which have duplicate pro gramming. “Both of them look to be more popular than the Houston channel (KHTV),” he said. Since the FOX network channel out of Waco is replacing one of two CBS affiliates on TCA’s lineup, few programs will be lost if they are switched. But he estimates 30 percent of KHTV’s programming will be lost if it is replaced by 20-Vision. Rogers said, however, that many of those programs are reruns and late-night shows. TCA has received some negative feed back from subscribers about the loss of KHTV’s “Star Trek: Next Generation.” He said cable channel 5 sometimes carries the show and it could be picked up by another station at a later date. The FOX network airs such shows as The Simpsons, Married With Children and 21 Jump Street. “We’re trying to provide as much diver sity as we possibly can,” he said. TCA Cable is accepting customer com ments through today. A final decision on any changes will be made by Monday. ed orsing ?d at ti red te Supre® •dlypo? : emipi h setii Ring Geosciences dept, creates storm map By ELIZABETH TISCH Of The Battalion Staff i. The 5 in be s 'he or* The Texas A&M geosciences department has created a com puter program that finally can outwit Mother Nature during hurricane season. The program is called HAZMAF (Hazards Mapping) costs i Jl offe» an near $40 ;■ | and i- ^ igned to turn a numen- s co#! cal analysts of a storm search into an “aesthetically pleasing” graph ical map. Dr. Kenneth White, an A&M associate professor who Speciah • ’ zes computer software pack- ieoffc ; ages called geographic infortna- telp uon systems, said the average citizen can interpret the graphics. "The American public seems to respond mote to pictures than die written or spoken wordy’ he said. : along te, “D' orred ny M se of let it i ard 4756 .Texas jiTeiH One aspect of the program is its ability to simulate, m a matter of minutes, a hurricane’s pro gress during a three-day period. Emergency planners can pro- ■ a model of a three-, four- or orce hurricane and receive a graphical picture estimating how high waters will get in specific areas at specific times during a hurricane, White said. "The geographies system should be a pretty powerful tool for disaster planning and emer gency management,” he said. Conforming to this, a Galves ton evacuation procedure during a hurricane takes 28 hours. : “The best advanced warning from the National Hurricane Weather Service Bureau out of Miami gives us 24 hours; so we are looking at four hours of when people are stuck o« Galveston is land during a hurricane/’ White said. With the information from HAZMAF, disaster planners can organize both physical and hu man resources and redirect them, he said. The HAZMAF program was designed in 1986 and 1987 by Laura Schomick, a systems engi neer for Digital Equipment Cor poration. White and Dr. Earl Hoskins, associate dean of the College of Geosciences, helped Schomick with information she borrowed from Dr. M. Bunpapong while she was working on a master’s de gree at A&M. Bunpapong, an oceanogra pher, created a numerical model defining the variable heights of a storm surge. Schomick took Btm- papong’s data and created a way the data could lie read through graphic pictures. Although HAZMAF has been tested only' on data from histori cal hurricanes, the program promises valuable information for future weather disasters, White said. “We would like to fine tune it before we test it on a real basis.” Bush appoints A&M professor to board By SEAN FRERKING Of The Battalion Staff Dr. Patrick A. Domenico, a geol ogy professor at Texas A&M, is President Bush’s first appointment to the Nuclear Waste Technical Re view Board. Domenico is the ninth member to join the board after its creation in 1987. Members are first nominated by the National Academy of Science, and after an extensive investigation a select few are appointed to the board by the President. Domenico, who will serve four years on the board, was one of 22 nominated ap plicants. According to the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act, 11 mem bers are appointed by the President to evaluate the scientific and techni cal work at Yucca Mountain at the Nevada test site, which is 80 miles north of Las Vegas. The project is the potential site for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The Nevada test site, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island, has been used Tor nuclear testing since the late 1940s. If the Yucca project is completed on schedule in 2010, over 72,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste from civilian nuclear power plants will be stored over 1,000 me ters below the surface of the moun tain. Domenico said the board’s main responsibility is to see if the site at Yucca is suitable for safe storage of nuclear waste. “We are basically now reviewing the scientific validity of the investiga tions that they are making to say if - this thing (the Yucca project) is good or not,” Domenico said. He said the board also meets as specific panels several times during tne year to consult with government contractors at Yucca and to make suggestions to improve the manage ment of the project and the safety of the site. Although the board does not have any formal power to tell any contrac tor what to do, Domenico said the NWTRB is still very powerful be cause it reports directly to Congress every six months. “They (the contractors) don’t have to listen to us, but they usually do be cause we report directly to their bos ses,” Domenico said. “We report ev erything to Congress. If they don’t listen, we report that, too. “Then Congress jumps on the De partment of Energy, who is in charge of the construction at Yucca.” Domenico said the board also has to deal with many political realities that often conflict with scientific facts. For example, he said the site at Yucca is not the best place in the United States to store nuclear waste. “It is already a contaminated area, and the rock we are working with (volcanic tough rock) is not the best for nuclear disposal,” Domenico said. He said salt or granitic rock more adequately controls radioactive waste, but the states where this type of rock is located are politically against the construction of nuclear disposal sites. Domenico said over $1 billion has been spent on the Yucca project. He said the site has had many problems including the state of Nevada refus ing to work on the site. However, he said work and study must continue to deal with the nuclear waste dispo sal problem. “It’s not going to go away,” Dome nico said. “We have to deal with it, and the sooner the better. “We’ve got our jobs cut out for us, and hopefully we can better orga nize the project and determine if Yucca should be the site for our na tional nuclear waste,” Domenico said. Domenico is an authority on ground-water hydrology, the study of the properties of water and its un derground sources. He was officially appointed to the agency on April 27. However, he had been doing consul ting work for the board for over a year before joining the NWTRB. Domenico has been a professor at A&M since 1982 and is widely pub lished in the field of hydrology. He is the recipient of several scientific awards including the O.E. Meinzer Award for distinguished contribu tions to hydrology and the Distin guished Teacher Award from the College of Geosciences at A&M in 1986. Companies react to bookstore leasing proposal By JULIE MYERS Of The Battalion Staff Proposals for the privatization of the Texas A&M University Bookstore are due Monday, A&M’s director of purchasing and stores, said. Rex Janne said there has been a good response so far to the idea of leasing the bookstore. “There have been a lot of good questions raised, and we have responded to them,” Janne said. In the May 4 Battalion, Robert Smith, A&M’s vice president for finance and administration, said requests for proposals were sent to private companies April 27 to “test the waters” and de termine if enough interest existed in the private sector to lease the bookstore. Requesting proposals, however, is a “far cry” from discussing a future lease, Smith said. “We will review and carefully assess any offer made,” Smith said. “Any proposal would have to provide an advantage over what we are doing now. If it’s not in our best interests, we won’t do it.” Don Powell, director of business services at A&M, said a proposal is not a bid. “A proposal is simply asking what th**’' do if they had the opportunity to operate the sto re,” he said. “Even if we sent one (request) out, it would not be a sure thing that we were going to lease it,” Powell said. By privatizing the store, A&M could contract out the day-to-day operations of the bookstore to a private firm and still retain profits. The bookstore profits presently help support student activities. “If somebody came in, they’d have to guar antee an amount of money that would enable us to continue providing this support,” Powell said.