Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 46, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 5, 1978 Page: 3 of 6
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UNIVERSITY PRESS April 5,1978*1
t\ fair .
Comment
Peveto syit/Nuclear systems/Sun Day
Energy department, NRC dispute may cost
By LLOYD BENTSEN
United States Senator
“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to
throw a perfume on the violet,” said
Shakespeare in King John, “is wasteful
and ridiculous excess.”
We see a lot of wasteful excess in govern-
ment today.
The General Accounting Office sent me
a report recently which indicates that
there is a great potential for wasteful ex-
cess in a government program, now un-
derway, to select those nuclear systems
which will best meet our nation’s energy
needs.
The problem is a lack of cooperation bet-
ween two government agencies: the
Department of Energy and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
The General Accounting Office con-
siders the problems so serious that it
recently took the unusual step of sending
me a preliminary report on a study that
has been underway since last May, even
though the study won’t be completed until
later in the spring.
Here’s what is happening.
The Department of Energy is engaged in
a massive effort to evaluate 85 nuclear
systems, trying to determine which of
them should be selected for future develop-
ment.
The choices must be approved by the
Department of Energy, the State Depart-
ment and the Arms Control and Disar-
mament Agency but not, as things now
stand, by the Nuclear Regulatory Com-
mission.
This omission is especially unfortunate
since it could well result in the waste of
millions of our tax dollars.
Certainly, NRC is not responsible for
developing nuclear technologies. This
responsibility lies with private industry
and the Department of Energy.
However, NRC is responsible for in-
specting nuclear reactors to determine if
they are safe, if they have adequate
safeguards, if they are environmentally
sound and—if they pass all the tests—to
issue licenses permitting their con-
struction.
So, if the Department of Energy con-
tinues its program of assessing these
nuclear systems without participation by
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it
could well spend millions of dollars to
select systems that the NRC will refuse to
license.
The prospects of such wasteful excess
are disturbingly likely.
A good example is the experience with
the Clinch River Breeder Reactor. Let me
quote from the General Accounting Office
report:
The licensing review of the Clinch
River Breeder Reactor was ham-
pered during its entire history by
disagreement between the Energy
Research and Development Ad-
ministration (which has now been
replaced by the Department of
Energy) and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission on the fun-
damental safety design of the plant
Sun Day observance takes planning
‘Chocolate bar test’shows solar effects
By DICK WEST
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Although Sun
Day 1978 is still more than a month away,
it isn’t too early to start planning ap-
propriate ways to celebrate it.
The presidential proclamation
designating May 3 for the observance said
its purpose was “to demonstrate the sun’s
potential in meeting America’s energy
needs.” So let that be our theme.
When we think of solar power, we
usually think of vast expanses of glass that
collect the sun’s rays for home, apartment
and office heating units. Most of us don’t
yet have equipment that elaborate.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t par-
ticipate in the Sun Day festivities. Here
are a few suggestions for experiments and
demonstrations that may help to make
your Sun Day observance more
meaningful:
Park your car so that the rear window
will catch the afternoon sun. On the shelf
behind the back seat place a bar of
chocolate candy.
Lock car and go to a movie matinee or
perhaps attend a sun dance demonstration
at your local Indian museum. You will find
upon your return that the chocolate has
melted as efficiently as if it had been ar-
tificially heated.
Scrape a wad of chewing gum from a
bedpost, theater seat or some other collec-
tion point. Now drop it on a busy downtown
street corner on the sunny side of the
Suit halts construction
Lamar University has
faced several obstacles in
getting building funds, the
most recent of which is the
impending lawsuit by State
Rep. Wayne Peveto of
Orange.
The lawsuit is another step
in his continuing battle
against what he considers to
be the unfair way property
taxes are assessed in Texas.
His recent reform bill failed
to pass the senate because it
didn’t have the needed two-
thirds majority.
He now hopes to block the
hundreds of millions of
dollars for building funds by
obtaining a court injunction
that would declare the tax
unconstitutional.
If the suit is successful this
would leave Lamar and the
16 other colleges and univer-
sities outside the University
of Texas and Texas A&M
systems without state fun-
ding for construction. Also,
this would force greater tax
reform, which is Peveto’s
purpose.
Peveto did not set out to
“get” colleges and univer-
sities such as Lamar, but to
stop what we concede is an
unfair tax. The market value
of property should be deter-
mined uniformly across the
state and not left to the in-
dividual taxing authorities in
each county. Vested interests
have controlled these tax
rates for too long.
Peveto has been pushing
for property tax reform for
six years, and in the latest
Senate battle he had a
plurality of votes, but not the
clear two-thirds majority
that he needed.
Peveto has said that if he is
successful in seeking the in-
junction, he will then take the
matter of funding for the
schools before the next
regular session of the Texas
legislature. He couldn’t wait
until the next regular session
to try for the property tax
reform bill, however, and so
he is planning on filing suit.
The next regular
legislative session is set for
the second week of January
1979. This is a long time for
schools like Lamar to be
without state funds for con-
struction and to not know
what will be offered in place
of the tax funds. Maybe the
property tax reform
shouldn’t wait, but Lamar
shouldn’t have to either.
street. Then stand in a nearby store front
and observe what happens.
Although the gum may have been as
hard as a marble when you dropped it, it
soon will become pliable enough to adhere
to the shoes of pedestrians.
As in the case of the candy bar above,
this transformation in. the gum’s con-
sistency is a direct result of solar energy.
Take a garment such as a lavender voile
blouse and put it on a table outdoors so that
half of it is in the sun and the other half in
the shade.
Move the table about as necessary
during the day to compensate for the
movement of the sun.
Since it may take more than a few hours
to obtain the desired reaction, it is wise to
8. WEflSER
University Press
Fine Arts Editor:
Laurie Haynes
Staff Writers:
Jess Doiron
Tim Krause
Karen McLane
Tim Meece
Sue Reeves
Helen Sohlinger
The University Press is the official
student newspaper of Lamar Univer-
sity and the editorial printed under the
heading of “Fair Comment" is the
opinion of the student management of
the newspaper. Opinions printed in the
University Press are not necessarily
Editor:
Roger Cowles
Managing Editor:
Tara Shockley
Sports Editor:
Tim Krause
Circulation Manager:
Mohammad Talaee
Photographer:
Steve Wilson
Typesetter*:
Lillie Jones
Gloria Post
Lori Rull
Greek World Editor:
Katherine Streetman
Director of Student Publications:
Howard Perkins
those of the university administration.
The paper is published semi-weekly on
Wednesdays and Fridays. Articles to be
published must be submitted by Friday
to be included in the following Wed-
nesday's issue; deadline for the Friday
issue is the previous Wednesday. Ar-
ticles may be delivered to the Univer-
sity Press office, 200 Setzer Student
Center, or mailed to the University
Press, Box 10055, LU Station
Graphics Manager:
David Campbell
Advertising Manager:
Don Young
Assistant Advertising Manager:
Brenda Young
Advertising Salesman:
Larry Ferguson
Beaumont, Tex., 77710. Articles should
contain the name and phone number of
the person submitting them so that any
questions that arise may be answered.
Display and classified advertising rates
may be obtained by calling the Univer-
sity Press office at 838-7628 or 838-7629.
Business Manager:
Cheryl Ware
start the project* several days in advance
of Sun Day.
Eventually, you will discover that the
blouse has become two shades of lavender.
Once again, you are seeing solar power at
work.
This project demonstrates the ability of
solar radiation to make pigment lose color.
Take a pair of old trousers and cut off
one of the legs. On Sun Day afternoon, put
on the trousers and sit outside for several
hours with the lower half of your body ex-
posed to the sun.
That night you will be amazed to observe
that one leg is redder than the other.
In the reverse of the experiment above,
this demonstrates the ability of solar
radiation to augment pigmentation.
to cope with low probability ac-
cidents. For example, the NRC staff
stated in August 1975 that it was not
likely that the proposed containment
design for the Clinch River Breeder
Reactor would be adequate for the
site, but it was not until December
1976 that the design was changed to
comply with NRC requirements.
According to testimony before Congress
a 15-month delay in the Clinch River
project “resulted in a $214 million cost in-
crease.” the GAO advised me that the
disagreement between the two govern-
ment agencies was “a major, if not the
biggest factor” in the delay and the
resulting multi-million dollar cost in-
crease.
What we have here, then, is a serious
lack of coordination between these two
government agencies that has already
caused millions of dollars in wasteful ex-
cess and could in future years lead to an
astronomical waste of our tax dollars.
I have written to both the Secretary of
Energy and the Chairman of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, calling the GAO
report to their attention and urging them
to coordinate their efforts.
It is bad enough when bureaucrats waste
our hard-earned money to gild the lily. But
when they spend millions of additional
dollars in wasteful excess, simply because
two agencies aren’t working together, it is
time to call a halt.
Readers’ Forum
Emmons answers criticism
To the Editor:
Ordinarily I would prefer to leave
my public defense in the capable
hands of people like Mr. Mark
Arrington, who knows the way I
teach and grade and is therefore
able to state an opinion about me
and my teaching and grading. Mr.
Matt Harper also once occupied a
seat in a class of mine; while he was
there, I observed that he had learned
nothing over a period of several
weeks up to the time when he
chickened out.
I fail to see, however, what either I
or my “old cronies” have to do with
Mr. Harper’s deficiencies, other
than try to correct them; but Mr.
Harper decided not to allow me to do
this. I refuse to believe, however,''
that Mr. Harper was unable to
learn; like his classmate, Miss
DeVore, I think he merely decided
not to.
Messrs. Storms (senior, pre-med)
and McConnell do not know me, and
they can know nothing about me ex-
cept by hearsay; I gather that they
have heard mainly from disgruntled
incompetents and/or non-
performers from my classes,
assuming they have any direct hear-
say at all.
Their letters to the editor are
therefore to be classed as pure
prejudice, since they cannot qualify
as opinion based on facts. Mr. Mc-
Connell, observing that teachers
“stick together like flys (sic) on
flypaper,” seems to suggest that we
teachers are The Enemy.
Actually most if not all of us would
like to help students learn, but too
many of them have found easier
ways to a grade than leaming-and
of course, it is the grade that mat-
ters, isn’t it?
As Mr. Storms proceeds to become
an M.D., if he does so, I hope he will
be forced to overcome his distaste
for “Brute force memorization” (I
demand considerably more of my
students than this), purely for Mr.
Storms’s incomplete information)
before he is allowed to practice
medicine. When he rolls his pills or
hacks at his patients, there are sun-
dry details having to do with materia
medica and anatomy ■ which
he might find very useful.
Of course, I only teach English, a
subject of no imaginable importance
to a prospective medico, or to a
diesel mechanic or an air con-
ditioning technician.
In short, in order to speak in-
telligently on any topic, one needs
both intelligence and information.
Of my four critics in the March 31
University Press, only Mr.
Arrington showed them; and this
same criticism is also applicable to
some, at least, of my other critics.
Winfred S. Emmons
Professor of English (pro tern)
Blood Center offers thanks
Dear Editor:
The Blood Center of Southeast
Texas would like to express sincere
thanks to the 192 persons who gave a
little of themselves to help save a
life. Ninety-six other persons also
tried to donate but were rejected
because of medical reasons. Their
efforts are also appreciated.
The sponsor of the blood drive,
Jacque Placette, did a wonderful job
of organizing the drive and
recruiting donors. Her dedication
and enthusiasm are to be com-
mended. A special thanks is in order
to Bill Worsham who arranged for
the contribution of the kegs of beer.
Libbie Stinson also deserves
recognition for her willingness to
help, encouragement to donors, and
her attempt to donate.
The blood came at a time of great
shortage for the Golden Triangle.
Since the Blood Center stopped
taking paid donors, it has been very
difficult to find 1300 new donors each
and every month who wish to donate
on a volunteer basis. Each and every
person who helped make the drive a
success provided a valuable com-
munity service, probably more so
than he or she realizes.
Sincerely,
Monica Parks
Chairman of Spring ’78 drive
Novice woman bullfighter
seeks full matador status
MEXICO CITY (UPI)—A small, dusty
bullring in the poor Mexico City suburb of
Ciudad Netzahualcoyotl may not seem like
much to a lot of folks but to American
novice bullfighter Raquel Martinez, it
meant a lot Sunday.
The 25-year-old petite, blonde mother of
a 3-year-old son, who has fought bulls in
festivals “for years in northern Mexico”
says her performance at the Aurora Plaza
de Toros will make or break her.
“If I’m good, then I can go on to bigger,
more important plazas. If I’m bad then no
one will want me anywhere,” she said.
“I’m putting all my marbles on one bull.”
Raquel, of San Diego, Calif., is still a
novillera, or novice bullfighter. She says
her ambition is to fight in the Plaza Mexico
as a full-fledged matador. Not that being a
novice isn’t a good step to getting there.
"Novices aren’t just beginners,” she
said. “We’re professionals, too. We fight3-
year-old bulls that can kill a person.”
Full-fledged matadors fight 5-year-olds.
Raquel said it all began when she was 17.
She went with friends to a bullring in
Tijuana and fought a baby bull on a dare.
That was eight years ago.
She is married to Bill Robinson, in-
formation officer for the San Diego Police
Department. They have a 3-year-old son,
Scott Jacob who—naturally—wants to be a
bullfighter when he grows up, just like
mommy.
Raquel said she and her family will stay
in Mexico City for another three months to
practice for bloodless bullfights this sum-
mer in Fort Worth, Tex.
And, if the reviews Sunday of the lady
bullfighters are good, the practice sessions
may come that much closer to the prized
alternative—the swearing-in ceremony
that turns a novice bullfighter into a
professional matador—and the Plaza
Mexico—to bullfighting what the
Metropolitan is to opera.
Raquel isn’t the only one hoping for good
reviews. So are the bullring owners who
reopened Sunday for the first time in mon-
ths.
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Cowles, Roger. Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 46, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 5, 1978, newspaper, April 5, 1978; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500301/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.