0 Rage 4-Thursday, November3, 1977-The Michigan Daily CIi Sirb Waun 41atij Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 49 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Frats deserve punishment Time runningc nuclear waste s for slurring N A SOCIALLY aware, allegedly lib- eral college community such as Ann Arbor, it is a sobering fact to real- ize that racial prejudice of the shod- diest kind is alive and well. An incident which occurred last month on the intramural softball field is a case in point. On October 13, two fraternities - Sigma Phi Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Epsilon - were scheduled to play a championship softball game. However, due to a clerical error, the game did not appear on the field super- visor's daily schedule, and would have tQ be rescheduled. But since there was an open field and some extra officials, the two frats played anyway. Then the fireworks erupted. A team which was scheduled to play on the field arrived, and since the frat game wasn't official, the supervisor, a black woman, asked the two fraterni- ies to wrap up their game and leave Khe field. The players, however, were under the misconception that they were, in fact, playing for the cham- pionship, and refused to leave the field. When one player shouted an obscenity at the supervisor, she pulled the of- ficials off the field and began to pick up the bases. Then, according to officials and other witnesses, the supervisor was subjected to a barrage of racial slurs. Mofficial Witnesses verified that she was called "a nigger bitch," and told to "go back to Africa" or someone was "going to kick her black ass." This childish and reprehensible be- havior is deserving of harsh punish- ment, and the IM department doled it out. Since neither frat could single out the individuals who made the racist remarks, the department decided to punish the fraternities themselves. Both frats were banned from officiated IM sports competition for the remain- der of the school year. After learning of the severity of the verdict, the two fraternities suddenly "remembered" who the individual of- fenders were. They are now asking the department to punish only those specific offenders, and not the fraterni- ties to which they belong. ALTHOUGH it would be wrong to punish both fraternities for the actions of a few, this is a special case. Since the two groups were originally unwilling to identify the offenders, they have given tacit approval to the racist behavior, and as accomplises deserve equal punishment. It is indeed distressing to see the members of Sigma Phi Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Epsilon supporting the juvenile, bigotted acts of a few mem- bers. By STEVEN SCHNEIDERF The unsolved problem of how to dispose of deadly radioactive waste now threatens the future of nuclear power in the U.S. The Department of Energy has warned that if action is not taken soon, the lack of storage space for nuclear waste might force the clos- ing of 23 U.S. atomic power plants, starting in 1979. AND THE White House Council on Environ- mental Quality recently recommended that the use of nuclear power not be expanded unless a solution to the waste problem is found soon. More than 3,000 tons of radioactive waste are now stored in temporary facilities, some of which already have sprung leaks. "The immediate problem," said one in- dustry official, "is that the utilities are run- ning out of space." DURING THE NEXT decade, U.S. nuclear plants are expected to generate nearly 20,000 more tons of radioactive waste. And Presi- dent Carter recently proposed that the gov- ernment store both this and spent nuclear fuel from foreign countries as well. Industry spokesmen, while praising the Carter proposal, agreed it was only an in- terim solution at best. "It is no more than a short-term answer," said Carl Waske, president of the Atomic In- dustrial Forum, "a way to avert a possible shortage of fuel storage capacity." Environmentalists were not at all pleased with the President's plan. "THE PUBLIC should not be misled into believing this policy will usher in new solu- tions," warned Richard Pollack, director of Critical Mass, the Ralph Nader anti-nuclear organization. "The government is in as much of a quandary about what to do with the waste material as it was two decades ago." Until last year, much of the utilities' radio- active waste was shipped to a reprocessing plant in West Valley, N.Y., where some of it was reconverted back into nuclear fuel and the rest into high-level nuclear waste, ulti- mately to be disposed of by the federal gov- ernment. But in September 1976, Nuclear Fuel Ser- vices, a subsidiary of Getty Oil, abandoned the nation's only commercial reprocessing plant on the grounds that it wasn't commer- cially feasible. THEN LAST SPRING, President Carter announced that commercial reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel would be postponed in- definitely because of the increased risk of nu- clear weapons proliferation that it poses. Since then, the utilities have been request- ing an expansion in the size of-their tempor- ary storage pools, but federal officials con- cede that expansion of those facilities is not a long-term solution for the storage of radioac- tive material - some of which must be safe- guarded for as long as 250,000 years. Gordon Corey, vice-chairman of Common- wealth Edison, said several months ago that nuclear power would become uneconomical if utilities had to store their spent fuel perma- nently. THIS MEANS that the federal government must establish either a central storage facili- ty or a permanent disposal site. The problem is that no one seems to know how to store these highly toxic wastes. "The real question is what do you do with the wastes that are there," said James Griffin of the Department of Energy. "Everyone's pondering that." Meanwhile, the wastes continue to eat away at the walls of storage tanks, and radioactiv- ity is beginning to be detected in the earth, in streams and in the ocean. SOME 18 DIFFERENT leaks accounting for the escape of 429,000 gallons of nuclear waste into the earth have been reported over the past 20 years at a military disposal facili- ty at Hanford, Wash. These leaks, along with radioactive waste intentionally dumped in the area, have left the land "so badly contaminated," according to a Ford Foundation report, "that it may never be cleaned up." At Oak Ridge, Tenn., nuclear burial tren- ches have intercepted the water table, and a creek feeding into the Clinch River has been found to exceed the maximum permissible concentration of radioactive material. THE FAXCEY FLATS disposal site near Moorhead, Ky., also has been leaking radio- active material, but at levels that do not yet pose a health hazard, according to Kentucky officials. Last summer, radioactive cesium was discovered in a fish purchased in a Berkeley, Ca., market. Although there is no conclusive proof, some experts suspect the fish may have been caught near the Farallon Islands, 50 miles off the California coast, where thou- sands of steel drums containing radioactive wastes were dumped 20 years ago - and where cesium and plutonium have recently been detected in the water. Industry spokespersons, environmentalists and federal officials all agree that waste disposal is the major problem now facing the nuclear industry, but disagree on how critical it is. - THE MOST immediate problem is in California where state law prohibits the licensing of additional nuclear power plants until the federal government adopts a waste disposal plan acceptable to the California leg- islature. Federal officials maintain that plant closings'can be avoided and reliance upon nuclear power can continue to increase, but environimentalists disagree. "To say that we're going to solve the waste problem is-a hoax," contends Jeffrey Knight, Washington lobbyist for Friends of the Earth. "Pretty soon it will be time to call in the chips on the nuclear industry." ?ut or i0 olutio0n RANDY BERNARD, of San Francisco's People Against Nuclear Power, predicts at least two reactors will be closed down this year. Nuclear industry official Scott Peters dis- agrees. "While time is getting short for some reac tors," he said, "there is no immediate danger of a shutdown." He conceded that some shut: downs might occur in the early 1980s but "only if nothing is done." Industry believes that policy-making deci- sions rather than technical breakthroughs are needed to solve the radioactive waste problem. MEANWHILE, THE federal government - which is committed to putting a permanent commercial waste repository into operation by 1985 - is having difficulty finding a location for it. "Nobody has accepted waste facilities thus far," a nuclear opponent noted. "Connecticut is glad to have lots of reactors, but its citizens refuse to have any wastes stored there." The same has been true elsewhere. Ver- mont and Louisiana passed legislation earlier this year that would make it extremely dif- ficult to establish nuclear waste facilities there. AND LEGISLATURES in South Dakota and New Mexico have passed resolutions that also would bar or limit the federal government's nuclear waste disposal plans. Last May, in response to public opposition, Michigan Gov. William Milliken told federal energy officials that he wanted his state removed from consideration as a waste disposal site. In September, Illinois Atty. Gen. William Scott told a House subcommittee that "Illinois will not passively allow itself t become the nation's dumping ground for high- level nuclear waste." AS STATES are approached as possible locations for waste disposal sites, public op- position rises. And while the constitutionality of some of the anti-nuclear waste statutes is open to question, the federal government is not looking for a showdown on the issue. "We're trying to enlist the cooperation of local people," says Energy Department spokesman James Griffin. The nuclear industry maintains that the best way of winning public support is to get a waste storage program into operation. "The only way we will convince people is by doing a pilot project," said Scott Peters of the Atomic Industrial Forum. All that is needed is a state that will accept the project, and a way to ensure that radioac- tive substances do not leak back into the en- vironment for the next 250,000 years. Steven Schneider monitors energy poli- cy for the Ford Foundation-funded Third Century America Project, and often writes for the Pacific News Service. New wage law was needed ENACTED in an era of great pover- ty and unemployment, the first law regulating minimum wages was signed by Franklin Roosevelt under heavy opposition. Both conservatives and big businessfelt that the new min- imum wage, set at 25 cents an hour, would result in higher inflation and a ruined economy. Since then, every president signing laws increasing the. minimum wage has been met with heavy opposition by business and con- servatives, protesting that higher not lower unemployment would result. , From Washington, we hear that President Carter has signed into law a bill that would raise the minimum wage from the present $2.30 an hour to $3.35 an hour by 1981. The bill, which would raise the minimum wage in an- nual steps, would pump an estimated $9 billion into the economy, according to administration experts. Once again this new increase was met by protests. Conservatives and the business community argued that the increase would put thousands of people gut of work, and worsen inflation. - Their protests did meet some success, for the Senate voted down a provision of the bill which would have made future increases automatic. Aided by labor and civil rights groups, the administration succeeded in arguing that the increase would lift millions of workers out of poverty. The Carter administration noted that by the year 1981, the annual minimum yearly salary would be $7,000, an in- crease of $2,000 over the present rate. Arguments used against increases of the minimum wage have always been the same. But the facts are that what the increases have accomplished are a little better way of life. Though they have affected the economy unfa- vorably at times, the overall effect is one of increased benefits for the poor. It has given a chance to millions of workers to live better lives. The new increase was needed desperately, for it was apparent that $2.35 an hour was not enough in these times of inflation. But even with the new increase the poor must still struggle to stay ahead of spiraling costs. So that when the time comes for a new increase, rest assured that conservatives and business will argue that any new in- crease will result in a ruined economy, which in turn will be proven wrong. I'- Pounds of olars O MATTER how much buying absolute - is no doubt good news for :fN power the dollar loses in this British citizens. uny every month, its problems just While the British note increases in don't compare to the dilemmas faced its value this week, the Israeli pound by European currency - particularly was devalued by its government. in the cases of the English and Israeli Where it used to take 10.40 Israeli ' pounds. pounds to "buy" an American dollar, it The two currencies have bounced now takes 15.25 pounds. all over the economists' charts in the The devaluation came as part of N past year, changing value with diz- shift in economic policy, in which, as zying frequency. Natives of the two Britain did, Israel removed certain countries literally don't know from one controls on the value of its currency. In day to the next whether their notes will this case, the pound's value fell by one- buy a loaf of bread or just a slice. third. Earlier this week the British, who OVERNMENT officials in Israel watched their country's coffers hit are worried that the decline in rock bottom last year, got some up- value of the pound will prompt Israelis lifting news. The value of the English to invest their money in dollars - pound experienced a remarkable which are worth more than ever now, surge on the world money trading and are more stable. "Buying" .market. What that means, simply, is American dollars would mean taking that traders began paying six cents money out of the Israeli economy, and P , mrPfr Pumrvm, in n notP tmpv wntaa i th ,,m rto nr-a tnnin To' by pro ti m edi Afr ce' mu Sou unt sub the biq I sto cou hea bru fol nev Am pre org org tha twe not rec exi A pre Afr the Thi is cor T is pr wh inv ten wit far Letters to souuth africa ditions, social relationships have not appreciably improved. The Daily: - The attitude that is adopted in le support the concern shown the press, which the Daily is hap- the Daily in Southern African pily escaping, is that South Africa blems, especially the sen- is an anachronism, two steps rents expressed in your behind the times. A stiff dose of torial "Black Rule In South civil rights is prescribed. By ica Won't Come Without For- focusing on the nastiness or '(Oct. 21). It is surprising how ignorance of the whites, attention ch coverage is being given is diverted from the foundations ithern Africa at present when, of racism, the social and il recently, entire wars on the economic institutions that justify continent were overlooked in the nasty habits and from the press, such as with Mozam- organizations that are shaking ue. those foundations. t took the suicidal courage of The African National Congress ne throwing youths to put the is calling for the complete ntry of South Africa into the liberation of South Africa: social, idlines in the U.S. It took the political and economic, not only ital killing of a student leader, Black or majority rule. They lowed by bannings of a have repeatedly called for com- wspaper owned by the Anglo- plete cultural and economic erican mining consortium, isolation of South Africa until this )minent leaders and aim is achieved. anizations, to keep itsthere. Yes, we must force the regents Vhat of the significant to divest the U of M of its in- ;anizations and newspapers terests in apartheid. But how did t have been banned for nearly those interests come into being in enty years?; some that have the first place? What drives these dreamed of applying for or institutions of learning into sup- eiving official permission to port of racial oppression? These st! expansive tendencies lead, krmed struggle has been in inevitably, to war, as the Daily gress for 16 years in South seems to understand. We look rica, led by the armed wing of forward to continued and African National Congress. deepening analysis of Southern e Daily's diagnosis that force Africa throughout the struggle. inevitable in South Africa is -Southern Africa rect, if a little late. Liberation Committee The South African history that William D. Wilcox being written in the U.S. ess has built inhamesia it begins at the point anita en the U.S. becomes deeply To The Daily: volved. Along with this is an at- In a recent letter to the Daily, a mpt to force all evils of racism, Mr.. Hill, in quite impassioned th which this country is very language, supported Anita miliar, into a civil-rights or Bryant and her well-known The Daily I am tired of being called "per- three cheers for ev verted" continually by people everywhere, for it is on. who neither understand nor care stop fighting each other to understand what it's like to be will make progress on our gay, and I am equally tired of -Mark t waiting for non-existant rebuttals by members of the gay com- vand munity here in Ann Arbor, who To The Daily: continue to disco their lives Some time last weeken away, unaware of the noose 29 and 30, a popular fellow tightening about their necks. Mr. Engineering was cruelly Hill may be disgusted by the Er. Puerinhas e thought of men and women tionatly referred to by t (women, if you prefer) making Engineering communit love to members of their own sex, fered severe gashes to th a societal bias shared by many. He is currenty being repo But to gay people this is only an members of Tau Beta expression of their natural, and I Engineering Honorary o repeat, natural feelings, just as Mt. Pumpkinhead was intercourse between a man and a Beta Pi entry to the Pi woman is their expression of Contest for the Calculat heterosexual feeling; neither sponsored by theEngir feeling is inherently superior or Council.For two week moral to the other. My own ob- Pumpkinhead sat quietly servation is that the only perver- north lobby of East Engir sion occurring here is that other drawing attention to the members of society are condem- over his head, "You'd be ning homosexual love as im- youe qoued to miss the Ca moral, and are discriminating on Ball," Hopefully Mr. that basis. pkinhead will he healtry4 I look at American society to attend the contest and d today and marvel at the extent to Nov. 12 at Campus Inn. which people find ways to put In the mean time, I se down other people, Blacks, belvehat eeIwse Chicanos, Jews, women, gays. Do sble forath s immr as we teach our children vandalism owes an apoo "cooperation" on "Sesame bohanineoeinCono Street", only'to polarize them both Engineering Counc later in their interaction with Tau Beta Pi. Sity? nNancy Kay Smith You say "three cheers for CouniletEgn Anita Bruant", Mr. Hill? I say eryone, ly if we that we planet, C. Huck ralism d, Nov. in East beaten. is affec - he East y, suf- e head aired by Pi, the ciety. the Tau 'ublicity or Ball neering Ks, Mt. in the ineering poster eout of acultor Pum- enough ance on riously respon- act of ogy to cil and ering Contact your reps Sen. Donald Riegle (Dem.), 1205 Dirksen Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20510