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."