European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 9, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Thursday March 9, 19b9 the stars and stripes Page 3 operation smile in Hanoi a Vii a Buhr a child is carried into surgery wednesday humanitarian Mission to Vietnam. The group based in h or. Tom Porter one of a group of american doctors Norfolk a has operated on 103 vietnamese children und Nusug taking part in Opura Linn smile 11 two week so far at the Olof palme Institute in Hanoi. Bill to protect whistle blowers Back in Senate Washington a a Bill to protect a Calico whistle blowers who esp pc government waste fraud and abuse is Back in the Senate Afier a Compromise Between sponsors and the Bush administration. This very Well might be the first Bill to be signed by the president this year said sen. Charles Grassly. A Iowa. The Bill would Case the Way for Federal employees to win reinstatement if demoted or fired after disclosing mismanagement. Thcn-1 Reid Cal Reagan blocked the measure by n pocket veto meaning he refuted to the Hill and Congress was out of session us the time. He said it could result in the government fighting Legal Battles against itself. Reagan s move received heavy criticism in a sur prised Congress. Lawmakers agreed under the Compromise to give up a provision of last year s Bill that would have allowed a special counsel representing employees to go to court said sen. Carl Levin a Mich. In turn the administration agreed to a provision barring the special counsel from opposing whistle blowers in any action before the Merit systems Protection Hoard the Agency that enforces civil service safeguards. The administration also agreed to greater privacy Protection under the Bill Drivers pedal confusion blamed in Audi incidents was a a torn a the most. Like if i j ii of sudden Eccl Calion invoking the Audi 5000 and other cars is Drivers stepping on the wrong pedal the National i lib Hway traffic safety administration is. 1 the Agency however said tuesday that Drivers May not be to blame for con fusion Between the accelerator and Brake. The difficulty in selecting the right pedal May be aggravated by vehicle design it said. A year Mig study of sudden acceleration conducted by the Agency a transportation by Semi Center in Cambridge mass. Found that a ear can suddenly Speed up to full Power Only if the throttle is opened almost completely to provide by gun to the engine. Other proposed theories of sudden acceleration such As problems with the. Cruise control or electronic Idle Speed control systems failed to meet the test of an open throttle while the brakes Are no ,the of Ifancy has conduct cd More than 100 investigations of. Unwanted acceleration involving 20 manufacturers since the late 1970s the Agency s investigations of the problem have resulted in 1f recalls and manufacturers have conducted an additional 7s recalls. A major sudden acceleration Case involved the West German made Audi. In late 1986, the company recalled about 250,000 of its 5000-Serics automobiles for installation of a shift lock device which prevents the transmission from being put into Forward or reverse with out the Brake pedal being depressed. Audi spokesman Joseph Bennett said in Detroit that the report is a breath of fresh air As far As we re while the Center chose to use the Tenn pedal misapplication we feel thai it is fundamentally Wal we be been saying Bennett said. He was sceptical that design factors in he Audi could have contributed to con fuse orig among pedals. Our pedals arc optimized for braking efficiency for Driver control ice Nncel said. Are designed to be driven on Auto Chris at the can tar for Auto safely a critic of the Auto Industry declined to comment until it could Sec the report. Nitsa rejected the conclusion of a Canadian study and some automaker that sudden acceleration was due to Driver Chron " Driver error1 May imply careless Ness or Wilfulness in failing to operate properly Nitsa said. " tidal misapplication is More descriptive of what occurs. It could happen to even the most attentive Driver who inadvertently selects the wrong pedal and continues o do so unwillingly. A report by transport Canada issued in january concluded that sudden acceleration occurs As a result of Driver f Idaj placement shape and feel May be factors that Lead Drivers to press the wrong pedal the Nitsa said. I lows Var the Agency said proposals for any design changes must await fur ther research. Complaints of sudden acceleration Are based on instances when cars allegedly Goto full Power from a land still or slow Speed usually after the Driver has moved the automatic transmission from Park into drive or reverse Nitsa said. Nuclear release puts Plant on Alert Charlotte. No a a Small amount of radio Aive material was released from the my Ouirt nuclear Power Plant but officials on wednesday said no danger to me Public. An Kart inc second least serious emergency classification was declared by Duke . Mijc Halsal 11 45p.m on tuesday the Utility Noti fied state and local authorities of the Alert at 12 01 . officials said the release of radioactive. Material is within the conservative operating space ". If cations of lie Plant. The . Nuclear regulatory commission Ilu Scribi s an Alert As Ari event that could the Plant s safety. The response of our operators was excellent Mcgwire Plant manager Tony Mcconnell said. They detected the problem reduced the level of leakage and shut the unit Down the problem which occurred when a leak Devil. Oped in one of the four steam generators in unit 1,poses no danger 10 he Public the Utility said. to Savannah River reactor believed greater than first estimated by the Nch York times. Washington an Accident in january at River nuclear weapons Plant in South Carolina May have More damage Ihan engineers first thought the Energy department investigation of the Jan. 22, in which pressurized water in a reactor Cooling system Shook Inch thick pipes and caused several Large valves to leak also disclosed that two 95-ton heat exchangers May be ruined. The Energy department heat exchangers to determine whether they need to be re placed a task that could take a month or More and Cost several million dollars. -. The exchangers which Are As Large As Railroad Lank car Sand arc filled with Small tubes Transfer heat from the Pri Mary system for Cooling the reactor to the secondary Cool Ings siem which drains into the Savannah River after , technicians discovered that the water in the secondary Cooling system contained Levels of radioactive tritium hundreds of limbs higher than Normal because the secondary Cooling system drains into the environment operating the reactor with the damaged exchangers could pose a health threat to communities Down Stream drinking water from the River " the reactors have been closed for safely reasons and thus arc not leaking tritium now. The tests to determine whether the exchangers were damaged were conducted in isolation and Here w a a no drainage of coolant 10 the Riyce. The concern about the exchangers comes in the midst of a Mammoth program begun last november to improve safety and overhaul equipment at the 37-year-old Plant. The Plant near Aiken s.g., is the nation s Only source of tritium a radioactive isotope of Hydrogen that decays steadily and must be replenished periodically in most of the nation s nuclear weapons. The january Accident occurred at the k reactor one of three nuclear reactors still operable at the Plant. The Energy. Department Hopes to restart the k reactor first this year. According to the report prepared by a nine member committee the damage to tic secondary Cooling system at the k. Reactor was caused by an insufficient do Gnu of professionalism and discipline that resulted in at least serious procedural january engineers estimated that the damage would. Cost no More than 120,000 to repair. But this week Engi neers said the Cost of repair could be considerably More. The report criticized sex Dupont do Nemours & co., which built the Savannah River Plant nearly 40 years ago. U said the company had not provided the degree of. Aggressive improvement that is
