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Dr. Gordon Thompson describes alternatives for CP&L's nuclear waste storage Wednesday
night. Thompson has been hired by Orange County as an expert on nuclear accident risks.
Gore Puts
Hopes in
Fla. Cases
Starting today, "sudden
death" court rulings over
absentee-ballot handling
could settle Florida's vote.
The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A1 Gore
hung his presidential hopes on legal
proceedings moving at head-spinning
speed a day ahead of arguments before
the Florida Supreme Court, counting on
a court shocker to upset George W.
Bush’s certified Florida victory.
Lawyers sprinted between court
rooms Wednesday to battle over absen-
tee ballots while
Bush and Gore sub
mitted papers to
persuade die state
Supreme Court to
rule their way in a fight over recounts.
Late in the day, Republican legisla
tive leaders called for a special session
on Friday to choose a slate of electors to
enforce Bush’s election.
But the two leaders said they hoped
such a step would become moot
through a final court resolution of the
disputed election.
Gore’s team set the stakes in its filing
with the high court, writing: “In but a
few more days, only the judgment of
history will be left to fall upon a system
where deliberate obstruction has suc
ceeded in achieving delay -and where
further delays risk succeeding in hand
ing democracy a defeat.”
Bush’s team countered that the peo
ple had spoken on Election Day and
then added that “at no time in our
nation’s history has a presidential race
been decided by an election contest in a
court of law.”
The stalemate that has loomed since
Nov. 7 seemed to be nearing the end of
overtime and heading to a sudden
death score, almost surely in the form of
a court ruling. One surprise might come
from two parallel cases unfolding before
separate judges in the same Tallahassee
Courthouse.
Democrats were challenging a total
of 25,000 absentee ballots in Seminole
and Martin counties, saying
Republicans had been unfairly permit
ted to correct mistakes on ballot appli
cations, in violation of state law.
Either suit had the potential to switch
the lead in Florida’s vote count from
Bush to Gore, since Bush won the
absentee ballots by a 2-to-l margin.
Bush, leading by a few hundred votes
ever since the Nov. 7 election and talk
ing more and more like a president-elect
each day, said he had “pretty well made
up my mind” on his White House staff.
A A
Striking a BALANCE
By Jermaine Caldwell
Features Editor
She’s satisfied.
Things at UNC are just right for Katie
Welch - she likes the way her first semester
is shaping up.
Her classes, her brother, her sorority, her
plans. Everything is coming together.
And as she looks toward exams and
Winter Break, Welch is optimistically gear
ing up to hit the books and excited about
being around her family again.
Coming into her first year at college,
Welch wanted to make sure that all the dif
ferent aspects of her life were in order.
“I just wanted my life to be under con
trol,” Welch said, explaining that although
she has no regrets about high school, she
wants her time at UNC to reflect lessons
she has learned in the past.
And for Welch, that means setting aside
the right amount of time for everything
from her friends to her studies -a common
freshman balancing act that she is up to tak
ing on.
Welch has a 14-hour workload this semes
ter that she said is just the right speed at
which to start her college career. “Fourteen
hours is a good transition,” she said. “I’m
kind of just doing what it takes for now.”
And with classes from Spanish and
English to political science and even a class
about the Air Force, Welch is taking it slow
but trying to absorb as much as possible.
In order to do this and perform well acade
mically, Welch knew that she’d have to adjust
to the college test-taking mentality. “I definite
ly had to get more focused for tests,” she said.
“But that hasn’t been a hard adjustment”
With exams right around the comer,
Welch is gearing up to study but not letting
finals stress her out.
“I’m not dreading them,” she said. “But I
look forward to them being over and behind
me. I just plan to take them one at a time.”
Welch said she will ultimately be pleased
with her grades this semester because she
knows the amount of work she put in. “I
feel like I deserve whatever I get,” she said.
“Where I’ve worked hard it paid off.”
One of the most beneficial thing Welch
said she learned throughout the semester
was when to study. “I feel like as the semes
ter moves on and on, I’m learning about
my learning environment.... What’s con
ducive to it and what’s not -and trying to
weed out what’s not,” she said.
| I,
Part Four of Fresh Perspectives: A four-part series following the lives of four freshmen through their first year at UNC.
From left to right: Deone Powell, S.J. Barrie-Chapman, Kent Welch and Katie Welch.
Only a life lived for others is the life worth while.
Albert Einstein
No. 1 Priority
Bentley pursues top spot in his
weight class after taking a year
off from competition. See Page 11
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
Nuclear Expert Takes Issue
With CP&L Waste Expansion
By Kim Perry
Staff Writer
Nuclear power expert Dr. Gordon
Thompson told Orange County residents
Wednesday night that the proposed expansion
of waste storage facilities at the Shearon Harris
Nuclear Power Plant poses safety risks to the
community.
But he won’t get to share those same opin
ions when Carolina Power & Light Cos. and
Orange County face off today in Raleigh in
front of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
The ASLB will not hear arguments from
Thompson, a nuclear accident risk expert hired
by Orange County, in today’s legal proceedings
to determine whether an Environmental
Impact Statement must be issued before CP&L
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DTH/ARIEL SHUMAKER
Katie Welch, a freshman from Winston-Salem, helps children
from a local orphanage make Christmas crafts for the holiday season.
But Welch doesn’t have her eyes focused
solely on herself. Balance for this freshman
includes time for service.
She joined Kappa Delta sorority this
semester and is taking advantage of the out
reach opportunities provided. “I just want to
serve people,” she said.
In order to continue this love of helping
others, Welch eventually wants to end up in
politics once she is done with her education.
For now, though, Welch is focused on
making sure she maintains this distribution
of time. This includes making sure her twin
brother, Kent, is just as content.
“He’s OK with being Kent,” she said,
noting that to her, he seems to be enjoying
UNC and finding his place.
This Welch, however, said she knows the
“real deal” about the twin relationship and
how often they communicate.
“We talk every day,” she said, whether it
be in passing, going to grab a bite to eat or
sometimes checking out the social scene.
And she knows this because every time
the two come in contact with each other, it’s
something special for her.
“It’s a treat for me to see him,” she said.
“Any time you see someone who you really
like, it brightens your day.”
But Welch distributes praise equally
throughout her family and can’t wait to
can expand its waste storage facilities.
Thompson said the proposed expansion of
water cooling pools poses a greater risk for
potential nuclear waste problems than alterna
tives such as dry cask storage.
“The county’s statement is that an
Environmental Impact Statement should be
prepared for an expansion of the storage and
that (statement) should provide a detailed
assessment for alternatives,” Thompson said. “I,
over 20 years, have been involved in attempts
to raise this issue and have been beaten back on
every attempt.”
CP&L uses two cooling pools that store waste
in the form of tightly packed rods. The compa
ny wants to expand storage to the use of four
cooling pools, with rods more densely packed.
Thompson said that by opening the new
reconnect with everyone when she returns
home for Winter Break.
“I’m really looking forward to spending
time with my family,” she said. “It’s impor
tant to me because we’ve all grown older.
The times we’re all together are few and far
between. And that’s what makes it all the
more special.”
And getting to spend time with her
mother is also important to Welch because
she and her brother were the last children
to leave the house. “It freaked her out,” she
said. “For 25 years, her purpose to get out
of bed was to provide for her kids.”
Now, Welch said, “She’s enjoying having
the empty nest while realizing she’s still a
mother and we still love her.”
But Welch said she and her mother are
too much alike for everything to go perfect
ly. “We’re both just really outspoken,” she
said. “We try to outspeak one another.”
For now though, Welch is not trying to
fine-tune any relationship but the one she
has with herself.
She said, “It’s been nice to have work and
get it done, go out and enjoy my friends and
have time for myself.”
Just right.
The Features Editor can be
reached at features@unc.edu.
can
c.edu.mjamjM
Makin' It
Today: Partly cloudy, 50
Friday: Cloudy, 56
Saturday: Cloudy, 51
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pools, the waste would be packed at the highest
density possible. “We’re at that point again in
terms of pool accidents where the staff is deny
ing it and still doesn’t want to talk about it,”
Thompson said.
“History shows it’s only through the relent
lessness of citizens or by accidents that these
things get attention.”
In place of using cooling pools for storing
nuclear waste, Thompson said dry cask storage
is a much safer alternative. This process involves
storing nuclear waste in casks or vaults, which is
then cooled by natural air circulation. With dry
cask storage, waste has a smaller chance of
escaping and catching fire, he said.
But Thompson said that while CP&L uses
See THOMPSON, Page 2
UNC Buildings
Await Fix-Ups,
Modernization
Major campus construction concentrating
on Internet rewiring and enhanced lighting
in older buildings is slated to begin in 2002.
By Angela Parker
Staff Writer
The facelift UNC will undergo from its SSOO million bond
appropriation is not just about cosmetic appearances.
Efforts to retrofit campus buildings will give the University a
makeover from the inside out - maintaining UNO’s surface aes
thetic appeal while modernizing the University’s infrastructure.
While critics say the University is struggling to remain com
petitive in the technological field, officials say improvements
on the horizon hold promise for the future.
And it all starts from the inside.
An Agenda for Improvement
Current plans to retrofit and renovate the campus aim for
the heart of the matter - the infrastructure.
Steele Building, Saunders Hall,
the School of Dentistry, Woollen
Gym, the Alumni Building, Howell
Hall, Manning Hall and Mitchell
Hall are several of the buildings that
will receive these internal upgrades,
including Internet rewiring and
improved fighting.
The renovations are designed to
meet new building and accessibility
codes; replace existing electrical and
heating, ventilation and air condi-
tioning systems; improve fighting;
provide new window treatments and refurbish the furniture.
The campus fiber optic backbone infrastructure - the net
work that connects campus buildings to the Internet - also will
receive enhancements including wireless networking, projec
tors, sound systems and large-image projectors.
John Oberfin, Academic Technology & Networks executive
director, said the renovations will provide a faster network
intended to be more reliable and consistent across campus.
In an effort to level the playing field, Oberfin said several
older buildings undergoing retrofitting will be rewired, bringing
network, television and video services to all offices and floors.
He said the proposed improvements will help keep UNC
afloat in the constandy evolving field of technology.
“There are likely over 100 campus classrooms that will
receive these technological upgrades from the bond package.”
Many projects have been brought to the table because of
annual funding shortages.
Director of Facilities Hanning Gordon Rutherford said it is
nearly impossible to keep up campus buildings - maintenance
and repair - on a year-to-year basis. “The cost of such deferred
repair gets too far out of a comprehensible reach,” he said.
At this point, these proposed capital improvements are esti
mated to take about eight years.
Creating a Blueprint
The Facilities Planning Department has been awaiting
appropriations for years, and now officials are ready to dive
head-first into retrofitting projects.
Project Studio Leader Anna Wu said the department has
been nursing the renovation plans, waiting for an opportuni
ty to execute the project plans.
See BOND, Page 2
Thursday, December 7, 2000
A four-part series
examining the
applications of
UNC’s share of the
bond funds.
■ Today: Retrofitting
■ Friday: Renovations