J hursclay
January 27, 1033
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 82, No. 91
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safeiiy f uiaste sMpmroemrft
By Chris Burbach
Lincoln City Council member Eric
Youngberg outlined his proposal regarding
the proposed shipment of spent nuclear
fuel through Lincoln and the UNL campus
at a Wednesday night forum sponsored by
the Government Liaison Committee.
Youngberg used a slide-tape presenta
tion to outline many of his concerns.
There are two types of radioactive waste,
Youngberg said, low -level contaminated
trash and high-level spent fuel, the latter
of which is the type of waste that would
be shippedthrough Lincoln.
The material must be shipped because
room for temporary on-site storage is
running out, Youngberg indicated in the
presentation.
Youngberg said he is concerned about
the safety of the casks that would carry the
waste. The casks have been tested only by
computer simulation and scale models,
which is not enough, he said. The slide
presentation listed the tests a cask must
endure: a 30-foot drop onto pavement,
a 30-minute fire at 1,400 degrees Fahren
heit, a 40-inch drop onto a steel stump and
submersion in water for three hours.
Dave Smith, a UNL student and Burling
ton Northern employee, also spoke,
Representatives from the Nebraska Public
Power District were invited, but were not
present. However. NPPD did send materials
that expressed their belief that the pro
posed containers for the shipments are suf
ficient and are designed to withstand an
accident scenario.
However, a National Transportation
Safety Board study found that "no tests
have proven that the casks could stand an
accident in the real world,'" according to
Youngbergs presentation.
Youngberg said he is concerned about
the closeness of the shipment route to
Lincoln residences and business. Smith,
who would be directly involved with the
shipments, said there are people living
within 100 yards of the proposed route.
That group of people includes the residents
of Harper-Schramm-Smith residence halls
on the UNL campus.
Youngberg outlined his proposed ordi
nance dealing with the waste shipments,
which he will present to the Lincoln City
Council at a public hearing on Monday.
The ordinance is based on the idea that
NPPD should bear the burden of proof that
the shipments are safe, Youngberg said.
The ordinance would require that the
mayor be given a 45 -day notice in advance
of such details of the route as who the
sliipper is, how the shipments are to be
made, exactly what materials are being
shipped, and the start and end point of
the route through Lincoln.
The ordinance also would require
a public hearing 15 days in advance of the
shipments. Conditions which would have
to be met at the hearing include:
- The material must be packaged and
labelled properly.
- Alternatives must be shown, and it
must be clear that there is no feasible al
ternative to transporting the waste through
the city.
- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
must explain why the city shouldn't have
jurisdiction over the shipping.
- Liability insurance must be provided.
- Containers must be properly tested,
r- Provisions must be made to notify
local officials.
Youngberg' stressed that his concern
about waste transportation wasn't
resistance to nuclear power in general; the
Cooper plant, near Brownville, is extremely
cost efficient, he said. The two issues
should be treated separately, he said.
Government Liaison Committee mem
bers also proposed a resolution expressing
student concern about the shipments to
ASUN Wednesday.
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LQEmdeir legislative comtro
By Jeff Goodwin
Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly said
Wednesday morning that LR5, a pro
posed constitutional amendment giving
the Legislature the power to direct the
UNL Board of Regents, would have a
minimal effect on its operation.
"I don't know that it isn't control
that we already have., if we want to use
it," Warner said. "It's presumed by most
people that we can do very little. The
truth is we have chosen to do very lit
tle." Warner spoke at a breakfast sponsored
by ASUN's Government Liaison Commit
tee and the College of Business Adminis
tration's Advisory Board.
LR5, introduced by Omaha Sen. Karen
Kilgarin, is "more of an emotional issue
than a factual one," Warner said. "I don't
see any great calamity if it passes and I
don't see any great calamity if it doesn't
pass."
The Legislature already has a degree
of control over the regents in its power
to appropriate funds for the university,
the senator said.
"There's no limit on how money shall
be used or should be used," lie said.
He warned that there is a danger that
legislators also could abuse their power.
He cited the case of a senator a few years
ago, who, because one of his constituents
was angry at a professor, tried to get
the budget for that professor's de
partment eliminated from the univer
sity's budget.
Warner explained his support of LB
410, a bill he introduced that would
allocate money raised from the cigarette
tax to the University Building Renova
tion Fund.
He said various groups press for new
buildings to be built that serve the in
terests of those groups.
"I think it's far more important to re
novate some of these other buildings,"
he said. "I have a feeling that otherwise
it will continue to be deferred in favor
of new projects."
Warner said LB211, Omaha Sen. Ernie
Chambers' bill to classify football players
as university employees, had very little
chance of passing.
"I'm sure it will not pass," he said. "I
doubt that we can afford to pay them
(football players) what their talents are
worth."
Warner also said he favors LB56, which
would raise Nebraska's drinking age to
21.
"It doesn't bother me at all to raise it
to 21," he said, adding that he believes
a higher drinking age would result in less
arrests for drunken driving.
"All the statistics I have seen certainly
seem to indicate that," he said.
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Eric Youngberg
Staff photo by Craig Andresen
men
Program helps accommodate
kids
with learning dssaHiii
By Bill Allen
In a junior high school classroom a
child sits lost because of mild retardation
or some other learning disability.
In the past this student might have been
overlooked or never allowed to reach full
potential, but the teachers couldn't really
be blamed.
Without proper training or resources,
the teacher might have been unable to
spend the time needed to help these child
ren. So those with handicaps might be
left behind, or routed into special classes
where they stagnated, both academically
and socially.
Helping those students is the aim of the
federally funded Accommodate program,
project director Stanley Vasa said.
Vasa, an associate professor of special
education, and program coordinator Allen
Steckelberg run the 3-year, $150,000
project from the Barkley Memorial Cen
ter on East Campus at 42nd and Hold
rege streets.
"The purpose of the program is ac
commodating mildly handicapped students
into regular classrooms," Vasa said. "Basi
cally, what we're doing is bringing together
30 teachers and training them."
Vasa said teachers across the state
make the expense-paid trip 'to Lincoln
on a regular basis to participate in teach
ing workshops.
The 30 teachers work in five areas,
including English, business administration,
math, home economics and science.
Four main areas the Accommodate
program deals with are:
information about the various roles
of a teacher.
adapting and selecting various proper
materials for instruction.
instructional strategies.
behavior management.
Continued on Page 8
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