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Role Player Robinson eyes return. See Page 13 Satlu ®ar Heel www.dailytarheel.com Partisan Battles Continue in Election Saga The Associated Press In dueling televised appearances, A1 Gore made a surprise proposal for a statewide hand recount of Florida’s 6 million ballots Wednesday and George W. Bush swiftly rejected it, calling the effort under way in several Democratic-leaning counties “arbitrary and chaot ic.” With their futures tied up in a knot of legal batdes, the presidential rivals called for a quick end to the contested The Next Step Bv Theresa Chen Staff Writer As controversy over activating two of Carolina Power & Light Co.’s Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant storage pools heats up, those who oppose the expansion are seeking alternatives. CP&L already has two fuel rod storage pools in use at its nuclear power plant in Wake County and has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to activate two more. Plant officials say they have added safety mea sures to reduce the risk of an accident. But the highly radioactive nature of the rods has some residents up in arms about CP&L’s pro posal, said Gordon Thompson, executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies and an adviser to Orange County. “Essentially, Orange County is saying the pools are a dangerous way to store spent fuels.” This is where dry storage comes in. Officials say using dry storage casks is preferable to wet pools because they would eliminate the need to bring reactor waste to Shearon Harris. “We’re very much in favor of dry storage at each generating reactor instead of bringing it to Harris,” said Jim Warren, director of the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network. “The waste is coming from CP&L’s other reac tors in North and South Carolina. If (CP&L) chooses to do dry storage, they’d drop the plans to import the stuff here.” Dry casks allow each reactor to dispose of its own waste safely. A cask is put into the pool so that water can drain in. Fuel is then moved into the cask. Once the cask has been filled, it can be removed and stored elsewhere. David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said casks not only provide all of the safety measures of pools, but have added benefits, such as the ability to be See ALTERNATIVES, Page 4 t/ : f %. r i DTH/LAURA GIOVANELU Two ladybugs cling to a wall in Hinton James on Wednesday night. The bugs have infiltrated residence halls to escape the cold weather. So, bein' a ladybug automatically makes me a girl. Is that it, flyboy? Francis the Ladybug FT* •?*% Em? W' 9% 3 Pi election but disagreed on how to do it. “Our goal,” the vice president said at his official mansion, “must be what is right for America.” Their evening addresses capped a whirlwind day of legal activity that gave both weary camps a taste of victory and defeat -but no clear road to completion. The Florida Supreme Court opened the action by rejecting a request from Secretary of State Katherine Harris to block any manual recounts “pending final resolution” of whether the process A Safer Alternative? imi? v—Ur MM Hj| / Concrete ■£ Cask Body ■ |* nifPßßn ? rtf —inner Cask Liner Multi-Assembly iSj-4 Canister | ! * •’ Dry storage casks, an alternative , . way nuclear are V s bptng .idvoc.Aed by those who l Ilf* WLy'f oppose the plant's expansion. M unmet SOURCE NC WARN ETTH/LAUREN DAUGHTRY CP&L Expanding Beyond Wake County, Carolinas By Kate Hartig Staff Writer In addition to trying to grow locally, Carolina Power & light Cos. is moving closer to becoming one of the largest ener gy companies in die South. And this has some local activists wor ried they will be encountering a “David and Goliath” fight. CP&L is slated to merge with Florida Progress Corp., a Tampa-based energy company, by the end of this year. CP&L already owns four nuclear plants in North and South Carolina. “A lot of mergers are going on in utility right now,” said Jeanne Bonds, corporate communications manager for CP&L. Hurry Up You have until 5 p.m. today to pick up bracelets for basketball ticket distribution this weekend. Serving the students and the University community since 1893 UNC Students, Activists React To Election Limbo See Page 2 was proper under Florida law. Bush’s camp had inter vened in the case, seeking to consolidate the tangle of legal petitions under one state court. The high court’s ruling, though far from the final word, gave Democrats new vigor in their ballot-by-ballot bid to trim Bush’s 300-vote lead in the state. Officials in Broward and Palm Beach counties hunkered down for an excruci- “The focus for CP&L is to become a Southeastern regional energy company.” Florida Progress, an energy company equivalent in size to CP&L, also has a nuclear plant in Crystal Rivers, Fla., sim ilar to the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant in Wake County. The merger will include the Crystal Rivers Plant, which has its own spent-fuel waste storage. Several protesters to the expansion of the Shearon Harris plant are worried that waste from Florida nuclear plants will be transferred to the Wake County facility. But Bonds said no transfer of nuclear waste will be involved; the waste from the Florida plants will be stored on-site. See FUTURE, Page 4 ResidentsvMgged by Insect Infestation By Angela Parker Staff Writer Two students sat in their room in Teague Residence Hall one night /tH quiedy studying. , r Suddenly, they heard a strange clicking noise. They ” looked at each other, puzzled. At first they suspected the sound was coming from one of their computers. They checked, but discovered nothing. They inspected their refrigerator. Still nothing. Finally, they realized they weren’t alone. They glanced toward the ceiling and saw their uninvited guests. Ladybugs. Teague resident Crystal Keller, a junior, has wrangled with the problem since her ating hand count of 1 million ballots. Even as they did, the Republican sec retary of state set the stage for another legal clash by announcing she would not accept the hand-counted ballots, calling the counties’ reasoning “insufficient.” Harris vowed to certify the Florida election results Saturday without the hand recount totals. Gore’s lawyers said they will chal lenge her decision in state circuit court Thursday. The fight careening out of Florida, a federal appeals court in Adanta agreed nuclear <s&> reaclSon A three-part series probing the controversial proposal to make Wake County's Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant the largest nuclear waste repository in the country. Today; Nuts and Bolts Friday: The People Tempers Flare Local activists have been battling the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant for more than 18 months. 1987 Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and its 1987 amendments require or autho — rize the Department of Energy (DOE) desig nated Yucca Mountain in Nevada for study as a possible repository site. Site is to be com pleted ml 0 years; government fells behind. Oct. 20,1998 CP&L announces plans to increase storage at Shearon Harris. Nov. 17,1998 Resolution by local governments asking for public hearings. Feb. 1,1999 Nuclear consultant Dr. Gordon Thompson hired by Orange County. Feb. 2,1999 —3O days resident discussion. March 4,1999 CP&L plans to fight county's initiative to oppose expansion. Aug. 24,1999 —CP&L plans merger with a Fla. company, 1,250 jobs will be cut Aug. 29,1999 —N.C. WARN increases protests of the expansion. Nov. 5,1999 —CP&L announces plans to hold two public hearings. _ December 1999 —CP&L holds two public hearings about safety concerns. Feb. 7,2000 —Sen. Edwards meets with local officials to hear about Shearon Harris. March 30,2000 Edwards decides to stay involved with the need for open debate. Aug. 22,2000 -CP&Lexpansion delayed. Oct. 17,2000 - Three protesters are arrested outside the CP&L in Raleigh, demanding to speak to CEO William Cavanaugh. Nov. 20,2000 Deadline to file safety con cems to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. DTH/LAUREN DAUGHTRY freshman year on South Campus, where she said the ladybugs were the worst Rebecca Casey, the assistant director of housing and residential education, said students all over campus are HP having to deal with the winged insects, and said that the amount SB- of ladybugs this fall is really no ? greater than in previous years. “The ladybugs arrive from all over the Southeast region of the country every year because they are trying to get in from the cold weather,” Casey said. But while many students say die bugs are a nuisance, experts deem ladybugs “beneficial insects” and recommend that pesticides not be used to eliminate the infiltration, she said. Residence halls have been equipped to consider Bush’s bid to shut down the recounts. The Texas governor lost a round on that question in federal court earlier this week in Miami. In a 182-page brief, Bush’s attorneys argued that granting the injunction to stop the hand counting in Florida would “not substantially injure the rights of the defendants ... and will clearly advance the public interest” The appeal seeks to stop the hand counting in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Broward and Volusia counties in Florida. with special vacuums, and residents are being urged to check them out and then release the bugs outside. “It is a pretty sim ple thing to solve,” said A1 Calarco, asso ciate director of housing and residential education. “In tile scope of things, I don’t see this issue as being a real problem.” Sophomore Justin Perry, a Hinton James Residence Hall resident, said he does not kill the ladybugs and that he sees them as harmless. “It is irritating, but I do not see them hurting me - it is more of a nuisance than anything.” Casey said students have been advised to use a facilities maintenance request form if they are having ladybug problems, and maintenance workers wiflj seal windows and cracks in the rooms cfl the residents. “Air conditioning units are3 Brrrrrr Today: Showers, 58 Friday: Showers, 57 Saturday: Cloudy, 49 Thursday, November 16, 2000 Ml M II Presidential candidates Democrat At Gore and Republican George W. Bush call for an end to the election standstill but are divided on the means to that aid. Town: UNC Plan Must Go Public The Chapel Hill Town Council petitioned UNC to publicize its land development plans of a future research park. By Amanda Wilson Staff Writer Anew development project on the UNC-owned Horace Williams tract has surfaced, prompting the Chapel Hill Town Council to demand answers from University officials. During the past two years, UNC officials and con sultants have researched how to transform the 975- acre wooded lot into a 8 million square-foot research park. The land, locat ed along Airport Road and Estes Drive, is owned by UNC, but sev eral town facilities are on the tract M -r- Xsßk | Council member Flicka Bateman says she resents the evasiveness of the Horace Williams area development plan. At the Town Council meeting Monday night council members asked UNC offi cials to come forward with their plans. Council member Flicka Bateman said Wednesday that she heard about the research park plan through rumors spread by reporters. “It gave me pause in terms of the whole process of open dia logue between the community and the council,” she said. Bateman was an original member of the Horace Williams Plan Committee, formulated by former UNC chancellor Michael Hooker in 1998. “I thought development for the Horace Williams plot had been put on the back burner,” she said. “It has all been very hush hush. I resent the evasiveness of that.” See RESEARCH PARK, Page 4 a prime way for ladybugs to enter rooms, and all cracks or unsealed places should be 'W'*, sealed to alleviate the prob lem,” Casey said. But residents’ problems with the crea tures are not limited to the live ones. They also face the problem of the lady bugs dying and covering the floors of their living space. Keller said that although the ladybugs are starting to die, she does not mind disposing of them properly. And she said the live bugs aren’t bad entertainment “They are good companions if you are lonely because you ; can sit and watch them." gg The University Editor can be reached ™ at udesk@unc.edu.
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