LOA - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 29, 1998 NATION/WORLD Nuclear meltdown tests prove to be risky CADARACHE, France (AP)--A nuclear lant nestled amid the pines, oaks and olive gees of Provence has suffered a meltdown. 5wice. On purpose. To learn more about avoiding Three Mile sland-style nightmares, scientists plan four iore meltdowns at the Phebus plant by 004. Environmentalists have tried to kill the ;rogram with warnings of a French ':hernobyl. So far, they have been unsuccess- 41. Now, the budget ax may do what their earnings could not. On Tuesday, a French-led team of interna- onal scientists unveiled results of the first vo tests, which showed that the meltdowns i the small reactor occurred at lower tem- eratures and produced more explosive ydrogen gas than expected. The results from December 1993 and July 996 tests, they say, could lead to modifica- ons in current and future nuclear plants. rance has more than 50 of them, generating bout 80 percent of its electricity. The Phebus program, unique in the world, has confounded its critics with success," GigPdBriton David Wilkinson, co-chair of the hebus pilot committee. Not everyone grees. The state Electricite de France and the U.S. 4uclear Regulatory Commission, project rticipants, said that while the results con- trm their computer models, they show no ignificant new data. .The results "tend not to be earth-shatter- AP PHO Technicians work at the reactor of the Phebus nuclear plant of Cadarache, in the Provence region. Yesterday, a French-led team of scien- tists unveiled results of the first of two tests that show a meltdown can occur at a lower temperature and produce more explosive hydroge than expected. ing," Charles Ader, the NRC's chief of accident evaluation, said in a telephone interview from Washington. "There are still issues out there, but it is an expensive program." Behind the fanfare for the invited press, behind the double electric fences surrounding the Cadarache compound in the rocky coun- tryside 30 miles east of Aix-en-Provence, offi- cials are worried about funding. France, which provides at least 55 percent of the funding, is under pressure to hold down its budget to qualify for next year's introduction of the euro, Europe's single cur- rency. "We have to fight to demonstrate the need," acknowledged Adolf Birkhofer, man- aging director of Germany's Reactor Safety Association, another participant in the pro- gram. The researchers at Phebus said theirs is the only plant currently staging meltdowns, although the United States conducted similar tests in Idaho in the 1980s. The reactor con- sists of 20 nuclear fuel rods; a large reactor can easily have 5,000. In the first five-hour test, coolant was drained from about 44 pounds of urani- um, triggering a meltdown watched by hundreds of sensors attached to the reac- tor; in the second test, the fuel had been partially used. Subsequent tests will look at diffe phases of the meltdown or different con tions under which an accident can occur.I next two are set for June and Decem' 1999. Two more are planned for betw( 2001 and 2004. Phebus scientists said their work will h in designing "recombiners" to fight buildup of explosive hydrogen gas and s port European efforts to design its nextg eration of nuclear plants. But Electricite de France, provid about one-fourth of the funding,v reconsidering the need for all six test researcher with the company said on c dition of anonymity. Assassins in, Ghandi plot found guilt. POONAMALLEE, India (AP) -- A mammoth conspiracy trial ended with convictions yesterday for all 26 people tried in the 1991 suicide bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the political heir of India's Nehru- Gandhi dynasty. All 26 were ordered hanged. "The nation stands vindicated," declared D.R. Karthikeyan, the federal police officer who led the investigation. Tamil Tiger rebels from neighboring Sri Lanka assassinat- ed Gandhi for allegedly betraying them by brokering a peace accord with the Sri Lanka government in 1987. Gandhi, the son and grandson of India's prime ministers was campaigning for his Congress Party in southern India on May 21, 1991, when a woman handed him flowers, then det- onated a pound of plastic explosives strapped to her body. The explosives, packed with 10,000 metal pellets, killed )To Gandhi and 16 others, including the Sri Lankan Tamil bomber, who went by only one name, Dhanu. en The prosecution charged 41 Indian and Sri Lankan sus- pects with terrorism, murder and conspiring with the rent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a rebel group fighting for ndi- an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils. The Twelve suspects committed suicide when trapped by iber police. Three guerrilla commanders accused of ordering the een assassination, including the Tiger chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, were charged but never caught. They remain at help large in the jungles of neighboring Sri Lanka. the The convicted, half of them Sri Lankan Tamils and the rest up- Indians, will appeal yesterday's verdict to India's Supreme Court. en- "Never before in trial history has there been such a convic- tion in which 26 people have been sentenced to death," Press [ing Trust of India news agency quoted defense attorney S. was Doraiswamy as saying. s, a Although only two defendants were convicted of murder, a* on- were tried under special terrorist laws that made the death penal- ty possible. Death sentences are rare in India, but those convict- ed in previous political assassinations were hanged. "This was the rarest of rare cases, and so we asked for death penalty' prosecutor Jacob Daniel told reporters waiting a half- mile from the courtroom, barred from getting any closer for security reasons. "The judgment established the conspiracy by the Tamil Tigers to kill Gandhi," said Karthikeyan, who led the 180- traps, strong police investigation team. No execution date was immediately set in the Gandhi tria0 final played out in Poonamalee, 1,000 miles south of New Delhi. ayev The town is 30 miles west of Madras, the capital of India's ched Tamil Nadu state, where people share linguistic, cultural and with family ties with the Tamils living in Sri Lanka. stay Nearly 2,000 people gathered in the marketplace to listen to radio reports of the verdict. "These people deserve to be than killed," said tailor Raj Kumar. About 800 policemen fanned out across the city to main- break tain order. No violence was reported. Tamil rebels have been fighting Sri Lankan troops since dur- 1983 to carve out a homeland for the island nation's Tam@ pitat- minority. The rebels said the majority Sinhalese discriminate ity to against them in jobs and education. nates. For years, the guerrillas operated from Tamil Nadu before much Gandhi signed the accord with the Sri Lankan government and ordered them out. n to In 1987, Gandhi sent the Indian army to help Sri Lanka n Mir crush the Tamil uprising. The Indian forces were withdrawn only three years later. Language barner hurts American on Mir * Russians complain that U.S. astronaut speaks poor Russian Houston (AP) --After first portraying him as a malcontent for saying his Mir spacesuit didn't fit, the Russians are now complaining American astronaut Andrew Thomas' command of Russian is poor. After a welcome like this, Thomas may be wondering which side of the hatch he wants to be on when space shuttle Endeavour pulls away from Mir today. "I wish my Russian was better" Thomas admitted yesterday after being informed of the latest criticism. Thomas arrived at Mir on Saturday for a 4 J/2-month stay. His crewmates will be two Russian cosmonauts who will reach Mir this weekend. Thomas' soon-to-be commander, Talgat Musabayev, said on the eve of his launch to Mir that Thomas speaks Russian poorly - much worse than departing astronaut David Wolf. What's more, the cosmonaut said, it could pose problems with their work; critical station repairs are planned over the next few months. "We understand that it will be hard for us," Musabayev said yesterday from the Russian launch site in Kazakstan. Thomas said he expects the language problem to "slow us down a bit, particularly initially." "But I think after a while, we'll learn a basis for communication which will be acceptable," he said. During yesterday's news conference, Thomas replied to questions only in English until a Russian reporter demanded: "Speak Russian, please" The astronaut managed a few, simple sentences, speaking slowly and haltingly. Thomas an Australian-born engineer, was a backup astronaut who never even expected to go to Mir until last summer, when a fellow American was dropped from the lineup. He said he wishes he had had more language training before he moved to Russia one year ago, but "it just simply wasn't possible. "We had to work with him urgently and intensively," said Musabayev. "But we hope everything will be normal, taking into account Thomas' professionalism and per- sistence." Thomas first annoyed his new Russian bosses on Sunday when lie announced he could not fit into his emergency space- suit. It was too tight, he said. Nonsense, replied the deputy chief of Russia's Mission Control, who called the astro- naut "capricious." After cutting and loosening a few s Thomas squeezed into the suit. Thomas is the seventh and American to live aboard Mir. Musab and Nikolai Budarin will be laun today to the space station along Frenchmanpold Eyharts, who will just a few weeks. Even Eyharts speaks Russian better Thomas, Musabayev noted. Language can, indeed, make - or I a mission. Wolf said his emotional low periods ing his four-month Mir stay were preci ed by long working hours and his inabil make small talk with his Russian crewn The technical conversations camer more easily, he said. Wolf said if it's any consolatio Thomas, "I can assure that space station is a great place to learn Russian." .. .". } 1 yea~r Shay w ox* r'vos I ~G ~A i rc(ir~ (Lkcs I i l k 1 I Lowes{ s( (4vd fALirfsxres S Nhfd I}y. (aY S kcd pw.ss ss4 k p TEMPLE UNIVEtSITY " u grams CAroadN FRANCE * Paris: French Lan puare i 4 Trc~v'e( Gze c'r c'GMI ~~Ie ooks 'I N - ,.,,..,.,. ....,.. .:e-- s. ; . . . - - - - - - - -.-: '. >.d '^s~s w'*_ ++vu « -.. . -- Af GHANA GREAT BRITAIN ITALY JAPAN SOUTH AFRICA TURKEY * West African Civilization *Mass Media in London *Architecture Workshop in Rome *Art and Culture *International Business * Rome Summer Session * Japanese Studies * Women's Literature *Mediterranean Studies 0 I