Page 20-Wednesday, May 2, 1979-The Michlgan Daily
Nuelear plant repairs delayed
SOUTH HAVEN (UPI)-Con-
sumers Power Co. said repair crews
trying to put the Palisades Nuclear
Power Plant back on line yesterday un-
covered another problem that could
keep the facility closed for days.
"There's another problem. We don't
know what it is yet," said Bob Wisch-
meyer, a utility spokesman.
Asked whether the problem had
anything to do with the plant's radioac-
tive parts, Wischmeyer said, "It's
possible. We don't know. We do know
that it will be more than just another
day before the plant is brought back
up."
PALISADE'S NUCLEAR generator
shut down automatically shortly after
midnight Monday when a faulty voltage
regulator tripped the plant's main tur-
bine generator.
Plant officials had hoped to have the
plant running again within 24 hours.
"The way the system is hooked up,
once there is that kind of malfunction,
the whole system automatically shuts
down," another Consumers Power
spokesman, Mike Koschi, said.
"THEY'RE RUNNING a series of
tests and those tests take the better part
of 24 hours."
The emergency shutdown was the
sixth this year at Palisades.
The utility's other Lake Michigan
shoreline nuclear plant, Big Rock near
Charlevoix, is shut down as the result of
a leak of radioactive coolant water in
the reactor vessel April 20.
CONSUMERS HAS scheduled a
Friday news conference at Big Rock to
discuss preliminary findings make by a
special task force appointed to in-
vestigate the leak. Big Rock has been
closed since Feb. 2 when it went down
for refueling.
The Palisades plant shut down shor-
tly after midnight Monday, less than 72
hours after coming back on line
following a similar occurrance last
Wednesday that kept the $185 million
plant closed for 42 hours.
"We don't know what caused the
malfunction yet," Koschi said. "Con-
ceivably that will remain unknown."
UTILITY OFFICIALS have noted,
however, both shutdowns occurred
while it was raining.
Since the Monday shutdown, Con-
sumers has had to buy 350,000 killowat-
ts of power from two other utilities, On-
tario Hydro and Detroit Edison, to fill
customer needs.
Committee rejects Carter's rationing plan
(Continued from Page 1)
for the second time in a week to win
committee approval of it.
"It is a simple matter of common
sense for us to do everything we
possibly can do to reduce our
vulnerability to another oil embargo,"
Carter said at a press conference Mon-
day during which he urged committee
approval.
CARTER NARROWLY avoided
another possible rebuff when the com-
mittee was hastily adjourned before a
vote could be taken on a proposal
seeking to prevent the President from
implementing his decision to begin
phasing out the price of domestically
produced oil on June 1.
In proposing extension of controls,
U.S. Rep. Tony Moffett (D-Conn.), said
Carter's windfall profits tax plan -
which would offset tax excess profits by
oil companies resulting from decontrol
- was "a figleaf ... a smokescreen."
The congressman's words were the
same as those used by Senator Edward
Kennedy (D-Mass.), to attack the
President's proposed tax Monday.
IN HIS PRESS conference, the
President dismissed the Senator's
comments as "a lot of baloney."
Despite the House committee's vote
on stand-by rationing authority for the
President, energy subcommittee
chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), said
approval by the House was "possible."
"I think it faces a hard fight. But, I
think it (approval) is possible," he said.
MANY COMMERCE Committee
members opposed the rationing plan
because coupon distribution would be
based on car ownership, thus favoring
well-to-do people with more than one
car.
$ Last Wednesday, the House Com-
merce Committee tentatively voted
down the rationing proposal by a 22-20
margin. But administration allies,
buoyed by approval of the proposal one
day later by the Senate Energy Com-
mittee, had hoped to turn the vote
around.
Despite Carter's direct appeal and
the heavy White House lobbying cam-
paign, only one vote was switched in the
intervening week - that of Rep.
Timothy Wirth (D-Colo.).
WIRTH SAID he first voted against
the plan because he felt it was unfair to
Western states with their large driving
distances. But Wirth said a later
promise by the White House to make
extra quantities of gasoline available to
Western and "caused me to change my
vote."
However, that promise alone wasn't
enough for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-
Calif.), whose vote the administration
had also hoped to switch.
"I just don't think the plan is fair,"
Waxman said. But he parted wit other
opponents by agreeing to support a
motion to send the plan to the floor
without a recommendation.
WAXMAN'S VOTE enabled the
rationing plan to go to the floor by the
slimmest of margins.
ENERGY.
We can't
afford to
waste it.
In another development, House
Speaker Thomas O'Neill predicted that
the House would strengthen Carter's
proposed "windfall profits" tax and
that Carter, when told this at a White
House leadership breakfast, had com-
mented, "the stronger the better."
O'Neill also said that Kennedy was
mistaken in accusing Carter of caving
in to oil industry pressure in decon-
trolling oil prices. "I'm on the same
team as the president," O'Neill said.
AND THE SENATE Energy Commit-
tee approved 12-6 its own substitute ap-
proach to Carter's request for standby
power to close gasoline stations on
weekends.
Under the committee bill, Carter
would set conservation targets for each
state, and the states would develop
plans to meet them, Only if a state
failed to meet its goal could the
president order conservation steps.
Last week, the Senate Energy Com-
mittee approved the plan by a narrow
nine-to-eight vote after the White House
modified it so that more coupons would
go to rural states where driving distan-
ces are greater.
The two committees rejected two
other fuel-saving measures proposed
by the President -- weekend closing of
gas stations and restricitons on adver-
tising lighting. But they approved
limiting temperatures in public and
commercial buildings.
THE DREAMS
OF DONALD
ROLLER WEE AOf
Dent school to give
new exam to students
by DONALD ROLLER WILSON
Haunting, hilarious, unpre-
dictable, undefinable-the
work of an authentic American
master of surrealism. Admirers of
Dali or Magritte-or anyone who
takes a slightly different view of the
world-will enjoy this beautiful, oversized
paperback. 61 illustrations, 57 in full color,
$8.95, paperback.
HAW THORN BOOKS 260 Madison Ave., New York 10016
(Coritinuedfrom Page 1)
"I think that this represents a dif-
ficult situation," Doerr said. "At what
point does legitimacy become
ENTER
MEDICAL OR
VETERINARY
SCHOOL
IN AUGUST
"Pay on acceptance only."
WHO. Recognized
Orientation by
Matrilted Student
For application and informa-
tion, write:
PROVEN MEDICAL AND
VETERINARY STUDENT
PLACEMENT SERVICE:
100 LSad St.
No wYe:, N.Y.10027
or ccli' (212)865-4949
dishonesty? It's not clear-cut; there are
no black and white answers."
Among dental students the consensus
seems to be the situation was not han-
dled properly. "From what I hear, it
could have been taken care of long
before graduation," said one dental
student, who wished tQ remain uniden-
tified.
Most dental students said they
believe the incident wasn't as serious as
administrators and the press seem to
think. "It Wasn't outright dishonesty,"
a student explained.
"It certainly isn't dishonest, but I
wouldn't call it cheating," another said.
Several dental students said they
considered the incident a joke. One felt
that the students who had "cheated"
were "getting back'" at computers.
"We've been computerizedl to death,"
he said. "This was the last test and it
was optional for the course. I think
being graded by the conputer kind of
buged them"