Tuesday _____
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Tuesday, mostly sunny and warmer, high in
the mid to upper 60s with SE winds 10-15 mph. News Digest 2
Tuesday night, fair and cool, low in the mid to fcduonai 4
upper 30s. Wednesday, mostly sunny and X^&Entertainment.. 6
warmer, high 70-75. Classifieds. 7
April 18, 1989 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 88 No. 140
Amendment gives local nuke site committees more power
By Natalie Weinstein
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska Legislature passed
amendments Monday to a bill concern
ing the state's future low-level radioac
tive waste site, including one amendment giv
ing more autonomy and money to local moni
toring committees.
iiggislaSBn:
The Legislature adjourned before senators
had begun first-round debate on the bill itself.
They are scheduled to continue debate today.
During debate on his amendment, Sen.
Spence Morrissey of Tecumseh said the local
monitoring committees need to have more
money than is provided in the waste site bill,
LB761. Without more money, he said, the
local committees will be “tokens.”
The monitoring committees provide input
regarding local needs and resources concern
ing the site.
Morrissey’s amendment, which passed 29
0, increases the one-time appropriation to be
divided among the three site finalists from
$75,000 to $300,000.
Auburn in Nemaha County, Butte in Boyd
County and Nora in Nuckolls County are the
three finalists for the 320-acre site.
The amendment would increase the annual
fund for the final site committee from $50,000
to $100,000. It also adds to the bill a daily on
site inspector who is answerable only to the
monitoring committee.
“We definitely need a man on site every
day,” Morrissey said.
The additional money would give the local
group “actual power” and authority, Morris
sey said. This autonomy and independence will
help build trust and confidence among local
citizens, he said.
Morrissey, whose constituency includes
Auburn, said local people are the only ones
who can be trusted on this issue.
Sen. Dave Landis of Lincoln said local
citizens do not have confidence in outsiders or
“neutral experts.”
Another amendment, introduced by Loran
Schmit of Bellwood, states that local monitor
ing committee members must be Nebraskans.
It also states that acceptance of state funds by
these committees to help choose the final waste
site will not force a community to become the
final choice. The amendment passed 25-15.
Sen. Doug Kristenscn of Minden called
Schmit’s amendment “ex post facto.”
Residents of Nora recently appointed Hugh
Kaufman, a U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency official, to their local committee.
Kaufman is from Washington, D.C.
Kristensen, whose constituency includes
Nora, said the members of Nuckolls County are
mostly farmers with little expertise in low
level radioactive waste.
“Quite frankly, they need some help,” he
said.
Kaufman was chosen, Kristensen said, be
cause “he can ask the right questions.”
Some people fear that an outsider will try to
control the committee, Kristensen said. But the
committees consist of nine people, he said.
Schmit said that to him, the purpose of
creating local monitoring committees was to
make sure they would be run by local people,
not outsiders such as Kaufman.
The bill itself is an attempt to solve prob
lems and answer concerns that came up during
statewide hearings on the issue.
The bill’s subjects include:
• A requirement for above-ground disposal
instead of the traditional shallow burial design
that was used before 1979.
• A requirement that the site will not accept
waste for longer than 30 years or after five
million cubic feet of waste has been accepted.
• A surcharge against the users of the facil
ity that will raise $2 million.
Senators passed numerous other amend
ments to LB761 including:
• An interim study to be conducted on the
liability issues concerning the site.
• A ban on waste not produced by states
within the Central Interstate Low-Level Ra
dioactive Waste Compact without the approval
of the Legislature unless an emergency exists.
• Testing and analysis of surface water, in
addition to well water, in the vicinity of the
site.
• Free assistance to the local committees
from the University of Nebraska Conservation
and Survey Division.
Sen. Merton Dierks of Ewing also offered
an amendment to committee amendments that
was ruled not germane - or not relevant. His
amendment would allow citizens in the county
of the final site to vote on whether to accept the
site.
Dierks, whose constituency includes Butte,
said the entire process should depend on
whether the community accepts the site.
Landis said he opposes a local vote because
the state cannot meet its obligations to the
compact with such a requirement.
snnim sjhhv unify NMrnnn
He does windows
Tim Shepherd of ABG Glass Co. does windows Monday
afternoon at Morrill Hall as renovation on the 4th floor
continues.
Complaints prompt review
By Roger Price
Suff Reporter
A subcommittee of the
Women’s Resource Center’s
Student Advisory Board de
signed a mission statement and set
goals for next fall in a meeting Mon
day afternoon.
The committee is making its pro
posals after a review of the center by
a committee formed by James Gric
sen, vice chancellor for student af
fairs. Griesen ordered the review af
ter complaints about the center’s
operation from students, faculty and
alumni.
The mission of the center, as the
subcommittee put it, is “to espouse
the feminist philosophy, provide
education and programs for women,
work for empowerment for all
women, teach male members about
women, support feminism and pro
mote inclusivity.”
Fran Kaye, a member of the sub
committee and associate professor of
English, said the center needs to be a
place for both separatist women and
men who want to explore feminism
and the empowerment of women
through feminism.
One of the goals the subcommittee
recommended was that the center
start an active outreach program to
improve the center’s image on cam
pus.
Kaye said the center currently
docs not have a good image among
students at the University of Nc
See WOMEN on 3
CBA project gets allocation
Committee decides to fund NU projects
By Jana Pedersen
Staff Reporter
Following a priority list estab
lished by the NU Board of
Regents, the Appropriations
Committee of the Nebraska Legisla
ture tentatively decided Monday to
fund five university-related projects.
As its lop priority, the University
of Nebraska asked for $ 1.6 million to
improve and update NU classrooms
and labs.
The Appropriations Committee
granted NU $350,000 annually for
two years for classroom and lab im
provements after the committee re
ceived a letter from the university.
The letter said that if $1.6 million is
unavailable, $325,000 would be a
reasonable sum to begin improve
ments.
NU’s second priority also re
ceived attention from the committee.
The university asked for $5 mil
lion over a two-year period to make
improvements to boilers at physical
plants on at least three campuses.
That amount was reduced to $4 mil
lion by the committee.
Another priority, to renovate and
expand the College of Business
Administration building at the Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln, was
approved by the committee.
The construction would include
an addition to the CB A building with
a connection to Love Library.
Originally, the committee re
ceived a bid of $7,250,900 for the
construction work on the CB A build
ing, but the bid later was increased to
$10.2 million.
The committee agreed to fund
$7,250,900 and allow the university
to seek private donations for the
remaining amount of the $10.2 mil
lion bid.
Committee members also dis
cussed reconstruction of greenhouse
facilities on East Campus.
Sen. Roger Wehrbein of
Plattsmouth said the reconstruction is
necessary for agricultural research.
The material originally used to
make the greenhouses is too dark, he
said.
Without replacing the material,
Wchrbcin said, research cannot be
done effectively in the greenhouses.
The greenhouses also have prob
lems with water leakage and ventila
tion, he said.
The university asked for
$2,985,000 to repair and expand the
greenhouses, but Sen. Jerome
Warner of Waverly warned against
funding expansion.
The committee decided to fund at
least partial repair of the greenhouses
and will determine the exact amount
after consulting with university offi
cials.
An appropriation of $464,870 also
was approved for continuing devel
opment of the Waller Scott Engineer
ing Center at UNL.
The committee will meet today to
give final approval to the appropria
tions before they arc sent for discus
sion by the full Legislature.
Coldfusion research may reach UNL
By Matt Evertson
Staff Reporter
If recent revelations about the
latest physics breakthrough -
cold fusion - hold true, re
searchers at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln soon could be per
forming their own fusion experi
ments, according to the chairman of
the physics and astronomy depart
ment.
Researchers at the University of
Utah announced last month that they
had found a way to merge, or fuse, the
nuclei of hydrogen atoms using ordi
nary laboratory equipment at room
temperature.
Scientists regard nuclear fusion,
which fuels the sun and the stars, as
having vast potential to be a clean and
efficient energy source.
Anthony Starace, chairman and
professor of physics and astronomy at
UNL, said UNL currently performs
no fusion experiments because “cur
rent-controlled’' fusion experimen
tation can only be done in a few select
places with large, specialized facili
ties.
To produce fusion, these facilities
attempt to heat gases to the tempera
ture of the middle of the sun, he said.
However, with the advent of cold
fusion, Starace said, UNL has the
capability to produce the reaction.
Starace said there is “no doubt”
that the researchers have discovered
cold fusion because measurements
showed neutrons being produced — a
sure sign of fusion. That measure
ment also creates the mystery of the
reaction because, with the small
number of neutrons produced, the
reaction should have made only one
billionth of the heat researchers
found it produced, Starace said.
Starace said time will be needed to
determine how the large amount of
energy from the reaction was pro
duced. Because of this, he said, the
cold-fusion process will not be avail
able for immediate use. An engineer
cannot presently build a device to
utilize this process, he said, because
the scientists don’t know exactly
what is causing the reaction in the
first place.
According to the researchers at the
University of Utah, the reaction pro
duces four watts of energy for every
watt it uses. Starace said that the only
danger of the reaction occurs if it is
uncontrolled. In early stages of the
experiment at the University of Utah,
according to Starace, a wrong con
figuration of the palladium metal
caused an explosion which destroyed
part of the researchers’ lab.
If scientists could determine the
hidden mysteries behind cold fusion,
Starace said, science would have the
capability to virtually eliminate
world energy problems.
Starace said only three substances
are apparently needed for the reac
tion: platinum, palladium and heavy
water (water composed of ordinary
oxygen and an isotope of hydrogen --
deuterium). A platinum electrode
and a palladium electrode arc placed
in a beaker of heavy water and an
electrical current is applied, he said.
The current forces deuterium atoms
from the heavy water to infiltrate the
crystals of the palladium metal in a
high enough concentration to fuse
and form energy.
Staracc said there is enough deu
terium, a principal component of the
cold fusion reaction, in our sea water
to supply the fusion reactions for a
million years. Besides having a con
stant fuel, the cold lusion would be
beneficial because it would produce
much less radioactive waste than
current nuclear power plants that rely
on fission - the splitting of the atom.
Cold fusion presents “all sorts of
very positive implications” for fu
ture energy needs, according to
Staracc. Besides providing cheap and
abundant energy, he said, cold fusion
would help to solve some of the prob
lems of the greenhouse effect, which
is caused by the burning of fossil
fuels.