Radiation violations cited
Inspection stirs improvements
By Adeana Leftin
Staff Reporter
A recent inspection by the Ne
braska Department of Health has
prompted improvements in commu
nication between UNL’s radiation
officer and authorized users, an offi
cial said.
Larry Grimm, radiation safety
officer for the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln, said that although he has not
yet received a formal list of UNL’s
violations, his office already has begun
improvements.
“Essentially, I’m already moving
ahead on what they’ve told us,” he
said.
Improved communication should
correct most of the paperwork errors,
Grimm said. He attributed most of the
mistakes to the large number of radia
tion users on campus.
About 500 faculty members and
graduate students work with radioac
tive material at UNL, Grimm said.
Although that number stays about the
same each year, he said, there is an
with improper paperwork.
“We occasionally miss things . ..
have we dotted our i ’ s and crossed our
t’s on paperwork.
“The state health department came
through and dinged us on all sorts of
things. They were incredibly picky,”
Grimm said.
His office has not yet been notified
of the number of violations, but one
problem pointed out by the health
department was UNL’s use of a new
radiation procedure manual, he said.
The manual has not yet received the
department’s approval, but should be
approved by December, he said.
Problems with actual radiation use
have been rare, Grimm said.
“I won’t say we haven’t had acci
dents. We have,” he said. “The very
few accidents we have had have been
handled immediately.”
Grimm cited one incident last year
when a graduate student who was not
allowed to work with radioactive
material created an explosion in a lab.
No one was hurt.
“All we had was one big mess to
clean up,” he said.
$ 900,000 in funds
Crash tests get boost from contracts
By Cris Wildhagen
Staff Reporter
•
The dummy went off the road in a
Honda Civic and hit the bridge railing
at 60 mph.
The vehicle was totaled.
The cost was $20,(XX).
The dummy was injured, but proba
bly would do it again. The Midwest
Roadside Safety Facility just received
more than $900,(XX) in state and fed
eral contracts to continue crash-test
ing roadside safety features.
The University of Ncbraska-Lin
coln lest site, located at the Lincoln
Municipal Airport, has been operat
ing since 1976.
Edward Post, a UNL civil engi
neering professor and director of the
site, said new designs that could re
duce the number of roadside fatalities
arc tested at the site.
“This is a very important area of
safety,” he said.
Each year, there is an average of
25,(KX) fatalities and 1.7 million inju
ries nationwide from accidents in which
the vehicle left the road and crashed
into roadside hazards, Post said.
The crash-test program is trying to
lower that number by testing differ
ent designs from agencies such as the
Federal Highway Administration and
the Nebraska Department of Roads.
To help continue testing, the pro
gram just received more than $600,500
from the Federal Highway Admini
stration Pool Fund, $165,(XX) from a
Federal Highway Administration
contract, and $150,000 from a con
tinuing study contract, Post said.
Tests performed at the facility show
whether or not designs for such th ings
as utility poles, guard rails or mailbox
supports would be roadside hazards.
Post said.
MwRSF is a combined effort be
tween Nebraska, Missouri and Kan
sas. The states share the cost of test
ing common designs, then report on
the design’s safety to the agencies,
Post said.
Beginning midnight Sunday,
Oct. 28
10 a.m. — Follow-up, theft.
11:15 a.m. — University of Ne
braska-Lincoln parking stall sign
stolen, Harper-Schramm-Smith
parking lot, $50.
12:30 p.m. — Radio and cas
sette player taken from car, dash
and window damaged, Acacia
fraternity, 2255 Vine St., $200
loss, $125 damage.
8:15 p.m. — Magazine taken
and recovered, Love Library,
$2.
10:11 p.m. — Cassette player,
headphones and cassette taken,
Pound Residence Hall, $120.
American Heart Association
WE'RE FIGHTING FOR VOUR LIFE
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216 N. 11th, Suite 102
Lincoln.. NE 68508
475-7010
LSAT: 11/28 GMAT: 11/6
GRE: 11/15 MCAT: 2/3
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C .C ( W TO THE MULTI-ETHNIC
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f /O
* ^ 0 { Place: Friday, November 2,1990
Time: 5:00-7:00 pm
Place: Culture Center
Cost: $5.00 for students
$6.00 for non-students
,-%—-«—p-1
Crafts show to feature artists from 8 states
I The KFOR Arts and Crafls Show will be
Friday through Sunday at Agricultural Hall
at State Fair Park.
Artists and craftsmen from eight states
will display holiday gifl ideas and home
decorating items.
The show will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
each day and is free to the public.
Lancaster County absentee ballots available
Residents who will be out of Lancaster
County on election day next Tuesday can
vote by absentee ballot.
Absentee ballots are available at the elec
tion commissioner’s office, 555 S. 9th St.
Office hours are from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
today and Thursday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. Wednesday and Friday, and from 9
a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday.
NASA physicist to address Wesleyan forum
Charles Jackman, atmospheric physicist
at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center,
will address the Nebraska Wesleyan Uni
versity Forum at 10 a.m. Nov. 9.
Jackman’s lecture, “Stratospheric Q/onc
Change,” will be in the McDonald Theatre
in the Elder Memorial Speech and Theatre
Center, 51st Street and Huntington Avenue.
The forum is free to the public.
Forum
Continued from Page 1
“I’m an invited guest here,” he said. “I
expect to be treated like one.”
Charles Lamphcar, director of the Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln Bureau of Business
Research, said that because the lid proposal is
a constitutional amendment, it probably could
not be removed for three or four years. In that
time, quality at the university, as well as through
out the state, could deteriorate, he said.
“A lot of quality students would leave, and
it would probably be the better ones,” he said.
“There is a high probability of quality deterio
ration.”
Jaksha said the term “lid” is used loosely
and docs not describe his proposal. The pro
posal allows continued spending increases by
local and state government, he said.
As long as increases arc less than 2 percent,
they can be approved by the mclluxls used now,
he said. If increases are more than 2 percent,
citizens must approve them in a special elec
tion, he said.
“There is no lid,” Jaksha said.
Moody called the proposal “mean-spirited”
and said it punishes governments which ask for
spending increases of more than 2 percent. If
the voters turn down the request for funds, he
said, the government is limited to no increase
— not even 2 percent.
Loan
Continued from Page 1
White said NSLP’s regional marketing
time, the federal government reimburses the
guarantee agencies completely for loans that
arc not repaid.
Agencies that have dclault rates of more
than 5 percent arc not completely reimbursed.
Ninety percent of loan defaults arc reimbursed
when defaults exceed 5 percent but arc under 9
percent. For guarantee agencies that have de
fault rates of more than 9 percent, the reim
bursement is 80 percent,
approach, school review policy, education
planning centers and assistance with lenders
and schools will help NSLP stay within the 5*
percent range. , .
NSLP has proven itscll to be a sound guar
antor, White said.
“I think that NSLP is off to a real bright
future and I foresee us serving the folks in
Nebraska as we have in the past,” she said.
wmsmmmmmtmmmm 1111 win—i
^-1
Joton Jimorton
B A. Sociology, Eorlham Collage
M.A. Sociology, Univanity of Virginia
Ph D Candidate. Sociology, Univanity of Chicogo
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annual turnover rate of about 100 to
200 people.
Everyone who uses the radiation
must complete an extensive training
period and is subject to routine check
ups. Every two years, users must
reapply for their radiation licenses.
“It’s a lot of legwork” for his of
fice, he said.
To streamline the checkup proc
ess, Grimm said that he has estab
lished communication with deans,
directors and chairpersons in the col
leges with which he works. Previ
ously, Grimm’s office had no contact
with department heads.
Most of the people Grimm has
contacted have sent a list of their
employees who arc using radiation,
he said.
“There arc about three or four dif
ferent colleges that have to respond to
us and nearly all have called us,”
Grimm said.
The number of violations discov
ered during the inspection may look
bad, Grimm said, but it is misleading.
Most of the problems did not deal
with misuse of radiation, he said, but