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County
Appeals
NRC Order
The Orange County Board of
Commissioners is appealing
an increase in nuclear waste
held at a local power plant.
By Lauren Ritter
Staff Writer
Local officials have taken their appeals
to the national level in a quest to prevent
a nearby power plant from expanding
on-site, potentially making it home to the
most nuclear waste in the nation.
The Orange County Board of
Commissioners filed a federal appeal
with the full
Nuclear
Regulatory
Commission this
week to require a
full public hearing
before Carolina
Power & Light Cos.
officially can
expand its storage
of nuclear waste.
The appeal
stems from a
March 1 decision
made by the full
NRC allowing
CP&L’s Shearon
Harris Nuclear
Commissioner
Moses Carey
remains optimistic
about the appeal
and hopes to hold a
public forum on it.
Power Plant to open two additional
cooling pools at the site to store more
low-level waste.
“Hopefully, we’ll get a full eviden
tiary hearing,” Commissioner Barry
Jacobs said. “My expectations of the
responsiveness to die concerns of
Orange County citizens are not high.”
A hill evidentiary hearing is a meeting
where the two nuclear scientists hired by
Orange County would be allowed to pre
sent their findings and conduct an open
scientific debate with CP&L’s scientists.
The federal appeal brings Orange
County’s to a total of three. Initially,
CP&L was given the green light to
expand by the NRC staff, but that deci
sion was held until a ruling was made by
the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
The board, which is a branch of the NRC,
gave its approval to the on-site expansion,
which was OK’d by the full commission.
But NRC spokesman Roger Hannah
said that if the full commission renders
a decision the commissioners disagree
with, then they still can appeal to the
See NRC, Page 4
Gardner, Talley
Deny Misconduct
By Kim Minugh
University Editor
The Board of Elections met Monday
night to begin final deliberations, about
the guilt of two students allegedly
responsible for forging an e-mail during
February’s race for Carolina A.thletic
Association president.
After reading written statements from
the two implicated students - sen ior Liz
Gardner and junior BJ. Talley - the
board went into deliberations to deter
mine whether the two are guilty beyond
a reasonable doubt'
Both students worked on candidate
Michael Songer’s campaign, Talley as
his campaign manager.
The board plans to release i!s deci
sion, before the end of the week.
The investigation was initiated by for
mer Board of Elections Vice Chairman
Fred Hill and board member Bryan
Crumpler after a Feb. 15 disqualification
hearing involving Songer and now-
CAA President Reid Chaney in which
The politicians don't just want your money. They want your soul
James Dale Davidson
State House Approves Student BOG Vote
By Michael Handy
Staff Writer
RALEIGH - After a brief debate, the N.C.
House approved a bill Monday that calls for a stu
dent vote on the Board of Governors and sent the
proposal to the Senate, where a similar measure
died most recendy two years ago.
Proposed by Rep. Alma Adams, D-Guilford, the
bill passed by a vote of 83-26 and was then sent to
the Senate by a voice vote.
UNC Association of Student Governments
President Andrew Payne, who serves as the BOG’s
lone student member, said he expects the bill to face
a tougher batde in the Senate. “We have some work
to do in the Senate,” he said. “(The bill is) getting stuck
and held up in a committee, which I think is unfair.”
A similar bill died in a Senate committee in
1999, and Payne is working to make sure the same
thing does not happen again.
“We have to convince (Senator) Tony Rand and
(Senate President Pro Tern Marc) Basnight,” he said.
But Payne said he remains optimistic.
“I am very, very excited. This is a long time
coming for students to finally be a voice at the
table,” he said.
Adams said 164,000 students from across the
UNC system support the bill, including the student
body presidents from all 16 system schools.
S
DTH/SEFTONIPOCK
Senior Jamie Sohn takes a turn reading names of people who died during the Holocaust.
The 24-hour reading of names kicks off the fifth-annual Holocaust Remembrance Week.
the board determined that an e-mail
submitted as evidence was likely forged.
According to Hill and Crumpler’s
findings, Gardner and Talley were in the
CAA office during the early morning
hours of Feb. 14 creating the e-mail.
But Gardner and Talley both contend
that they were with friends during those
hours and deny any involvement with
the forgery.
“They can’t prove beyond a reason
able doubt that I was involved in the
forgery,” Gardner told The Daily Tar
Heel last week. “There is no conclusive
evidence that links anybody.”
Talley also argued in his written state
ment that he had no connection to the e
mail.
He wrote that the matter had been
forwarded to Student Attorney General
Brad Newcomb, who reviewed Hill and
Crumpler’s findings and declined to
charge him with any offense.
“Thus, I have been absolved of
See BOARD, Page 4
A State Divided
North Carolinians face inequality
in technological capability.
A four-part series begins. See Page 3
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
But some state representatives disagreed with
Adams and raised serious objections to the proposal.
Rep. Ed McMahan, R-Mecklenburg, said the
student seat on the board is set up for a one-year
term, and it might prove difficult for students to
stay abreast of the issues the board considers.
McMahan added that it sometimes takes BOG
members appointed by the legislature several years
to fully understand issues.
Rep. Gene Arnold, R-Nash, said students do not
get all the facts they need to place a vote. “They
never visit other campuses,” Nash said.
Arnold also argued against the student vote by say
ing that BOG Chairman Ben Ruffin was voted in by
a 16-15 vote in 1998, explaining that a student vote
could have been the tiebreaker at that time. “It is
unfair to put that burden on a student,” he said. “In
my opinion, you are looking at a student who was
added for advisory purposes only.”
But Adams said she stands firm on the bill and
believes that students stay up-to-date on important
issues. “(Board members) are pleased with the ser
vice the students have given,” she said.
Adams added that members of the House serve
two-year terms, which seems to be adequate time for
them to leam the issues and cast an intelligent vote.
In response to the objections the bill faced in the
See VOTE, Page 4
UNC Sets Sights on Telescope Project
By Ann Hal
And Noelle Hutchins
Staff Writers
Imagine being able to observe and
examine, through millions of miles of
darkness, live images of light as faint as
a burning candle on the moon - right
from a seat in astronomy class.
This is precisely what professors and
researchers in UNC’s Department of
Physics & Astronomy hope to accom
plish within the next decade through
their possible participation in a project
to build one of the most phenomenal
telescopes on earth.
“This is the largest telescope in the
Southern Hemisphere and equal to the
largest in the world,” said Chris Clemens,
an assistant astronomy professor at UNC.
The project, tided the South African
Large Telescope, or SALT, is part of the
mission of South Africa’s post-apartheid
government to re-energize its technolo
gy industry and attract future scientists.
A consortium of universities and sci
ence agencies around the world will col
laborate to build SALT. The project,
which is set to be completed in 2006,
will cost about S3O million.
rfgjjj
DTH/BRENT CLARK
ASG President Andrew Payne and other ASG members react after the N.C. House passed
a bill Monday that would give the ASG president a vote on the Board of Governors.
Clemens said the telescope’s features
not only allow scientists to observe and
examine faint objects but also distin
guish the speed of light and analyze the
relative intensities of each particle.
UNC researchers are seeking to use 10
percent of SALTs observation time. But
scientists must raise $ 1 million within the
next year and another $3 million in the
next three years to participate in the
SALT project. “We plan to receive a com
bination of funds from the University and
private donors,” Clemens said.
He also said the project will proceed
without funds from UNC but expressed
the importance of this telescope as a gate
way to make competitive research con
clusions. “UNC astronomers have never
had a resource such as this one to study
distant galaxies and leam more about the
history of our universe,” Clemens said.
Joining the project will allow UNC to
obtain remarkable gains. Clemens said
the University will expand its reach to
international students and build con
nections with universities worldwide.
“Astronomy is a good program, but,
with the right tools, it could be a world
class program,” he said.
And Carney said the project will help
4 <4* 4*
Names Reading
Recalls Victims
Of Holocaust
The annual Holocaust Remembrance Week
is meant to help prevent a similar tragedy
from occurring by spreading awareness.
By Joe Sullivan
Staff Writer
Volunteers gathered in the Pit on Monday to quiedy read
aloud the names of people who died during the Holocaust -a
sharp contrast to the nearby noisy chatter and bustling of students.
At noon, Kimberly Grabiner, chairwoman of N.C. Hillel’s
Holocaust Remembrance Committee, began reading victims’
names, initiating a vigil that will conclude at noon today.
“It’s important to remember those who perished as a name
rather than as a number,” she said.
The event kicks off the fifth annual Holocaust
Remembrance Week, an event co-sponsored by N.C. Hillel
and the Carolina Union Activities Board.
Grabiner said she expects the volunteers to read the names
of only about 3,000 of die 11 million who were killed during
the Holocaust. Among those scheduled to take a turn reading
names include Chancellor James Moeser, Student Body
President Justin Young, Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf
See NAMES, Page 4
The SOAR Telescope Project
IR instrument duster
■ f\ / I I Phoenix/Optical bench
Vi yw/ l M (N0A0) Interim IR
Spectrometer (CTI0)
Visitor Instrument lK \f /| A R imager (MSU)
imager (CTI0) M
spectrometer (UNC)
(Single Gemini-dass can
on either side)
IFU bench-mounted *."
spectrometer
SOURCE: WWWPHYSICS.UNC.EDU/SOAR GRAPHIC BV KRISTEN HARD*
all UNC students and faculty involved
in any program in the department.
But researchers said the SALT tele
scope is not where the project ends -
researchers plan to combine SALT and
the already existing Southern
Raindrops
Today: Rainy, 55
Wednesday: Sunny, 54
Thursday: Sunny, 62
Tuesday, April 17, 2001
Observatory for Astronomical Research
telescope to advance scientific research.
UNC researcher Wayne Christiansen
decided to build the Chilean telescope
See TELESCOPE, Page 4