2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 5, 1999 NATION/WORLD Unsafe plant spurns nuclear blunder TOKAIMURA, Japan (AP) - The government For years, Tokyo insisted its nuclear facilities were off, Japanese media reports said. stepped up its investigation yesterday into shoddy far safer than those in other nations because of Japan's The atomic reaction, called fission, set off by the practices at a uranium-processing plant that set oif high technology and meticulous workers. accident is similar to what happens in a nuclear reac- Japan's worst nuclear accident. Officials have often scoffed at the idea that an acci- tor and is the principle behind the atomic bomb. The three workers responsible for the accident were dent like the ones at Chernobyl in the Ukraine or Processing uranium, if done properly, does not entail using bucket-like containers to mix the uranium and Three Mile Island in the United States could ever hap- an atomic reaction. were on the assignment for the first time. They also skipped some steps to get the job done as quickly as possible, the national Asahi newspaper reported. The Science and Technology Agency was inspect- ing the site of Thursday's accident and questioning officials of JCO Co., the private company that ran the plant in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo. The agency also announced plans to search the offices of 20 nuclear facilities around the country, and the government issued notice that the operating proce- Oures of all nuclear power companies will be exam- ined. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi asked for tighter emergency safety checks at all facilities handling nuclear fuel. He also requested a study on the "prop- er moral discipline" of employees at nuclear fuel plants. pen in Japan. Revelations that corner-cutting led to Thursday's accident have dampened that sense of infallibility. Workers put in too much uranium, setting off an uncontrolled atomic reaction that continued for hours, spurting radioactivity into the air. The Tokaimura accident sent the three workers to the hospital - two suffering potentially lethal doses of radiation. Forty-six other people were also exposed to radiation. JCO, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., has admitted that it had for years deviated from government-approved procedures by having its own illegal manual. The company was not required to be prepared for possible atomic reactions because the uranium-pro- cessing plant was in principle not supposed to set any By using the bucket-like containers instead of more sophisticated equipment, the mixing could be short- ened from three hours to just 30 minutes, the Asahi said, citing a hospitalized worker's statement to police. The company's reaction to the accident also is under investigation. Firefighters called in to help injured workers were never warned of a potential release of radioactivity and went in without protective gear. Firefighters were among those exposed to radiation. The speed of JCO's warning to town officials was also being examined. According to time lines provid- ed by the company and Tokaimura municipal officials, nearly two hours elapsed between the accident and any notice to residents that something was wrong. Japanese media reports said JCO knew within the first 10 minutes that an atomic reaction had begun. r year include AROUND THE NATION Fed expected to keep current rates WASHINGTON -- With the economy still racing along, the Federal Reserve should be getting ready to raise interest rates for a third time to cool things off. But most economists are betting that the central bank will leave rates unchanged when pol- icy-makers meet today. They base that view on what Fed officials have had to say in recent weeks and also on economic indicators showing'that while economic growth has been str*, keeping unemployment at a 29-year low, inflation has remained benign as well. "They definitely won't raise rates," said Lawrence Chimerine, economist at the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington think tank. "They have moved pre- emptively twice this year. They can't keep pre-empting when the traditional indi- cators of an increase in inflation are not there." The central bank raised rates for the first time in more than two years on June 30 and then again on Aug. 25, boosting the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, to 5.25 percent. Those increases in borrowing costs for banks were matched in lockstep fashion by identical quarter-point raises in banks' prime lending rate. The benchmark rate for millions of consumer and business loans now stands at 8.25 percent. After the last rate increase, the Fed kept its policy directive, an indicator of future moves, at neutral, saying its two rate increases "should markedly diminish thee of rising inflation going forward." DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHERS WANTED * WE'RE LOOKING FOR AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO WANT TO TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES! " $25 FOR EVERY PHOTO THAT IS ACCEPTED AND OTHER GREAT INCENTIVES " DIGITAL CAMERA PROVIDED FOR NON-OWNERS FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT ANNA AT (734) 395-9905 OR VIA EMAIL TO ANNA(@LIGHTSURF.COM. Plans f fundraising, lawsuits BOILING ER Continued from Page 1. seniors, Bollinger also plans to take a five- to 10-year look at in-state vs. out of state student enrollment. He said that during the past 15 years the tuition for out of state stu- dents has risen tremendously and the University should look at what this has done to their enrollment numbers. Increasing recruitment of outstanding non-resident high school seniors, Bollinger said, will also be consid- ered. Bollinger also stressed his commit- ment to additional campus planning projects sqch as the Arthur Miller Theater and the Robert Frost Poetry House. ColumbiaU. tries to prevent virus' spread NEW YORK -The mosquito-borne virus plaguing New York, previously labeled St. Louis Encephalitis, has been reclassified as a West Nile-like virus by the New York City Department of Health. As a precaution, Baker Field and South Lawn were sprayed with pesticides last night by Health Services and Environmental Health and Radiation Safety. Columbia University Health Services recommended that students avoid shrubs and fields on campus and close their windows. While pyrethrin, the pesticide sprayed on campus, is a natural extract, it can create an unpleasant odor, and exces- sive inhalation could cause scratchy throats. A voicemail message warning students was sent out last Friday after- noon. This spraying should be effective for about two weeks, at which point anoth- er assessment will be made. A second phase of spraying will likely take place next week in mosquito-infested areas such as standing water on rooftops. As of Friday, the DOH announced 36 confirmed cases, 168 cases under investigation, and four deaths from encephalitis. Of the 36 cases, 27 are age 60 or over, and by location 24' are from Queens, nine from The Bro x, two from Manhattan, and one f Brooklyn. Only five victims remain hospitalized. Insurance customers win $456M lawsuit MARION, Ill. - A jury ordered State Farm to pay $456 million to 4.7 million customers yesterday in a law- suit accusing the nation's largest insurer of using inferior parts for#6 body repairs. A trade group called the verdict the largest ever against an insurance com- pany. The plaintiffs still are seeking an additional S4 billion on their claim that State Farm deliberately deceived customers about the parts' quality. There's a hot new commodity ARiOUD THE WORLD I . > North Korea blasts alleged U.S. killings SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea criticized yesterday the alleged mass killing of civilian refugees by U.S. soldiers in the early days of the Korean War and demanded that Washington apologize. It was the first official reaction from the communist state on last week's news report on the alleged killings in No Gun Ri village in July 1950. "The truth of history cannot be dis- torted and covered," said Pyongyang's Rodong Sinmun, the main newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party of Korea. It said the U.S. forces committed mas- sacres not only in No Gun Ri but also in other areas during the 1950-53 war. Historians say North Korean troops committed far more atrocities, sum- marily executing U.S. prisoners of war and slaughtering large numbers of South Korean civilians. In its commentary, Rodong criticized the U.S. and South Korean govern- ments for dismissing repeated requests for an investigation by South Koreans who say they survived the No Gun Ri killings. Rebel army abducts Colombian residents BOGOTA, Colombia - A small rebel army thought to have faded into obscurity kidnapped and then released a dozen residents of the northern Colombian town of Ocana yesterday, a police commander said. Two of the captives were injured and one died* The incident suggested yet ano r threat to this country's troubled peace process. The abductions set off two con- frontations with soldiers, who con- ducted a successful rescue attempt, and brought the Popular Liberation Army, known as the EPL, more noto- riety than it has enjoyed in nearly a decade. - Compiled from Daily wire rep. University of Michigan C A R E E R F A I R T U E S D A Y 0 1 2: 0 0 P M - M I C H I G A N C T O B E R 4: 0 0 P M U N ION 5 The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Fniday during the tall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $100. Winter term Ijanuary through April) is $105, yearlong (September through April) is $180. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of the Associated Press and the Associated Collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. PHONE NUMBERS (All area code 734): News 76-DAILY; Arts 763-0379; Sports 647-3336; Opinion 764-0552; Circulation 764-0558; classified advertising 764-0557; Display advertising 764-0554; Billing 764-0550. E-mail letters to the editor to daily.etters@umich.edu. World Wide Web: http://www.michigandaiy.com. 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