The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, May 19, 1982-Page 3
NUCLEAR WASTE LEVELS EXCEED LIMIT
'U' to protest NRC fine
By GREG BRUSSTAR
The University will protest the $2,000 Nuclear
Regulatory Commission fine issued in January after
a University Hospital laboratory was found to be ex-
ceeding NRC radioactive discharge limits, according
to Alan Price, assistant vice president of research.
Price said the University is appealing the fine
because the discharge did not pose a significant
health hazard. "There is no question that we ex-
ceeded the NRC limit," he said, "but there is a
question about the severity of the release" and of the
penalty.
THE UNIVERSITY was fined $1,500 for "ex-
ceeding NRC limits in discharging gaseous radioac-
tive iodine" and $500 because "personnel had not
previously evaluated the discharge from the
laboratory exhaust hood," according to Jan Strasma,
spokesman for the NRC.
The laboratory, located in the medical school's
nuclear medicine department, was cited for im-
properly dispens#g a drug called NP-59, causing the
violation. One stage of the dispensing process allows
radioactive Iodine 131 to be vented into the at-
mosphere, according to Price.
The radiation discharge was detected in January
and reported to the NRC, as reqpired in the Univer-
sity's license to possess and use radioactive
materials, Strasma said. It was discovered when the
University's Radiation Control Service was checking
the by-product of a new NP-59 process which was
suspected to be volatile, according to Arthur Solari,
director of the service.
WHILE THEY were making that check, he said,
they decided to check a second ingredient which was
supposedly stable. They found that this ingredient
was, in fact, volatile, he said, and that some radioac-
tive waste was being dispersed into the atmosphere
from the dispensing method used bi-monthly since
1975, according to Price.
A new procedure, which prevents radioactive
wastes from being released into the atmosphere, has
See UNIVERSITY, Page5
Milliken warns
some programs
will be cut
Daily Photo by JACKIE BELL
UNIVERSITY CHIEF FINANCIAL Officer James Brinkerhoff discusses the
future of the University atla luncheon held at Campus Inn yesterday.
Brinkerhoff speaks
on future of 'U'
By BILL SPINDLE humanities and the sciences," he
The University is -becoming more said.
and more "research-oriented" as a Brinkerhoff assured listeners that
result of budget cutbacks combined the University has not ignored the ar-
with the rise of technology, according ts, even in times of a technological
to University Vice President and boom. "Even during the days of Sput-
Chief Financial Officer James nik," he said, "this university was
Brinkerhoff. hard at work trying to get money for
In a luncheon speech yesterday our music program."
titled "The University of the-Future," HE ADDED, however, that both the
Brinkerhoff said that science and -nation and the University are slipping
technology receive the most in their support of the humanities
monetsry support from both private "because the job market (in that
and governmental sources, which will area) is so slim."
help replace any money these areas The economic situation in the state
may lose as a result of University and country is bleaker than ever
budget-trimming. before, Brinkerhoff said. "I believe
"THE SCIENCES have benefited that the kind of troubled times we are
over time because of the sponsors," facing are rougher times than the
Brinkerhoff said. He added that the 1870s or the 1930s," he added.
University is developing into "a very Brinkerhoff also expressed concern
high-quality research oriented in- over the funding of the University's
stitute." Replacement Hospital Project, which
But even though research is one of he said could be in jeopardy if the
the University's highest priorities, state's credit rating is not reversed by
Brinkerhoff said that the humanities the fall. "If the state can't sell those
would not be disregarded by the bonds," he said, "then we have a lot of
University. "It is extremely impor- tippy-toeing to do in the financial
tant to retain a mix betweenthe minefield."
LANSING- Last Wednesday's
"painful," $50 million budget-cutting
order will rely primarily on reducing
government programs, although some
will be eliminated entirely, Gov.
William Milliken said yesterday.
Milliken, interviewed by reporters
while attending the annual Bean Day
Luncheon, said he still was working on
the order and that the decisions were
proving extremely difficult.
HE SAID the plan will touch many of
the areas hit by a draft $326-million
executive order he had termed an
unacceptable alternative to raising the
income tax. But he said the size of the
cuts will obviously be much smaller.
Milliken's aides are scheduled to
submit the $50 million budget cutting
order to a joint meeting of.the House
and Senate appropriations committee
today.
The additional budget cuts are
necessary because the legislature-
which already has approved higher in-
come and cigarette levies-balked at
adopting proposed new taxes on com-
puter games and other amusements.
. MAKING THE cuts is proving dif-
ficult, in part, because so little time
remains in the fiscal year which ends
Sept. 30.
During an impromptu interview on
the Capitol steps, Milliken was reluc-
tant to disclose details of the as-yet un-
finished plan.
HE SAID work on the document is
"not coming easily."
Milliken was asked specifically if the
plan will resemble the executive order
that hit school aid, welfare, revenue
sharing, parks, and a host of small but
popular programs such as domestic
assault counseling.
"Most of the categories will be
covered, but the amounts will be sub-
stantially different," he said.
MILLIKEN SAID reductions will be
achieved through elimination of the
programs but primarily the cutting
back of programs."
The cuts "are painful, but never-
theless we have to make them,"
Milliken said.
Sen. Kerry Kammer, a Pontiac
Democrat who chairs the Senate ap-
propriations subcommittee on
education, told Milliken he will fight the
executive order unless schools are
exempted.
"Without a doubt, we can cut $50
million in marginal programs," said
Kammer, a candidate for the
Democratic gubernatorial nomination
should absolutely not reduce our
already insufficient funding of
schools."
State asked to stop
teaching 'creationism'
DETROIT (UPI) - The American District Judge William Overton in
Civil Liberties Union and Michigan Ara several schoolboards in
Voice of Reason aked the state attorney Kansas,
general to atop the teaching of Michigan have authorized it.
"ceatos" ea Jackson County The letter to Kelley pointed to Judge
schooldistrict esterdayOverton's ruling, to a March 10
A letter to Attorney General Frank resolution by the state board of
Kelley from Howard Simon, executive education,
directorrof the ACLU of Michigan, and Simon said Kelley had not responded
Eli Master, issues chairperson of the to the state board's resolutin which
Michigan Voice of Reason Chapter, recommended the attorney general see
said "legal action on your part is now that the state and national constitutions
required." are "vigorously supported and enfor-
Simon said despite the ruling against ced with regard to the separation of
the, teaching creation science by U.S. church and state in all respects."