The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 1

151 What women should know about self-defense The defense faces a hard-headed Wildcat ACCENT B8 SPORTS 12 KENTUCKY EDITION Louisville, Thursday morning, September 20, 1979 20c 30 Pages Vol. 249, No. 82 Home delivery. 80c we Copyright 1979, The Courier-Journal fix U.S. joins Israel, Egypt in resolving dispute over Sinai 4 fill NXV'': By JOHN M.

GOSHKO L.A. Tlm.s-Washlngton Pt Srvk. WASHINGTON The United States, Israel and Egypt tentatively resolved yesterday a squabble over a peacekeeping force for the Sinai Peninsula. They agreed that Israeli and Egyptian military patrols should be augmented by U.S. civilian technicians and increased U.S.

aerial surveillance of the area. After two days of negotiations. Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, flanked by Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Egyptian Defense Minister Kamal Hassan Ali, announced that their plan is being submitted to the three governments for their approval. If the plan is approved, as expected, it would defuse the tensions that have been smoldering for weeks between Israel and the United States over the need for a buffer force while Israel withdraws from the Sinai and turns it back to Egyptian control.

Originally, the three parties to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty had expected the United Nations Emergency Take a bet on wet National WuHwr Service LOUISVILLE area Increasing cloudiness with a 50 percent chance of rain today; rain continuing tomorrow. High today, mid-70s; tomorrow, low 70s. low tonight, upper 50s. KENTUCKY Increasing cloudiness today with rain beginning in west by afternoon and spreading east tonight; rain continuing tomorrow. Highs today, 70s; tomorrow, low 70s.

Lows tonight, 50s to around 60. IklHI A kl A flm with roin beginning in me soutn during me aay; rain III) Cluing ivniviiwn. inyiia ivuwj, in miavusi Tomorrow, upper ous to iow in. lows tonight, 50s to low 60s. TENNESSEE Scattered showers and a few thunder-showers spreading east today through tomorrow.

Highs both days, 70s. lows tonight, 60s. High yesterday, 79; low, 61. Year ago yesterday: High, 94; low, 71. Sun: Rises, 7:29 a.m.

EDT; sets, 7:44 p.m. Moon: Rises, 6:40 a.m.) sets, 7:33 p.m. Weather map and details, Page 18. Related stories, Page A 3. Force in the Sinai to perform the buffer task during the phased Israeli withdrawal.

But that plan was scuttled during the summer when the threat of a Soviet veto in the U.N. Security Council caused the emergency force's mandate to lapse without renewal. Israel then insisted that, under the Camp David accords, the United States was obligated to provide an alternate peacekeeping force. But a U.S. proposal to use the U.N.

Truce Supervisory Organization was rejected by Israel as inadequate because its personnel would be insufficiently armed and under the control of U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. The dispute was smoothed over temporarily when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin agreed to have patrols from their armed forces share the job of supervising different phases of the withdrawal. But Israel's insistence that a more permanent arrangement was needed led to the negotiations in Washington this week. As outlined by the negotiators yesterday, the key to the agreement involves the use of U.S.

technicians and overflights to help ensure that the withdrawal lines are respected by the other two countries. The arrangement also would guard against Egypt putting heavily armed units into Sinai areas designated as limited-arms regions under the peace treaty. U.S. technicians and monitoring equipment have been in the Sinai since 1975 when Israel made a partial, pre-treaty withdrawal. Although the technicians were scheduled to be withdrawn at the end of the year, Vance said yesterday that the plan now is to keep them there during the three-year Israeli withdrawal.

In apparent anticipation of questions about whether U.S. troops would be sent to the Sinai, Vance stressed that all the Americans would be civilians and that no more than 200 would be involved. He added that the executive branch will ask permission of Congress for the plan as was done when the technicians originally were sent to the Sinai in 1975. Vance also said that the United States will increase the reconnaissance flights currently being made over the Sinai by See SINAI Back page, col. 1, this section Slitf Pnore oy Bmy Davis Only a part of the westbound section of the Interstate 24 bridge crossing the Cumberland River in Western Kentucky remains to be finished.

A shock to the budget Unforeseen quake damage shot bridge's cost sky-high Kentucky Bureau of Highway officials, who have come up with the earthquake theory, said it was known that the bridge site was in the Madrid Fault, which brought disaster to the Missouri-Kentucky area in a series of shocks in 1811-12. The force of that series of quakes was not monitored, but the shocks were witnessed by early settlers in that region. Highway officials said consulting engineers did not figure on the rocks still being jumbled and shifty, and a barrier to holes that had to be dug for bridge pier supports. They said the scrambled rocks re U.S. secrets on bomb's operating principles are out short enough that it doesn't even require suspension arches.

But the 1-24 Ohio River Bridge at Paducah had a lower contract price $18.5 million when it was begun in the late 1960s. And the Tennessee River Bridge of 1-24 about two miles west of the Cumberland River Bridge cost $13.5 million and has a giant suspension arch 520 feet long. Completed in 1974, that bridge is not yet open because it is at the be-See EARTHQUAKE Back page, col. 1, this section of the bag techniques. But, once they figured out the essential concepts, the affidavit said, it "took only a matter of months to translate it into practice." U.S.

intelligence authorities have said that some other nations have gone so far as to design, build and detonate hydrogen devices only to learn that they had stumbled down a blind alley. Five nations now possess hydrogen bombs the United States, the Soviet Union, Brit-, ain, France and China. The Hansen letter portrays the essen- tial concept as an intricately related family of physical principles employed in a configuration that is neither simple nor immediately obvious from schemat-See SECRETS Back page, col. 1, this section inside FOCUS ON: H-BOMB LETTER not be possible for amateur or a terrorist to make a hydrogen bomb in a basement. But, for a government that already had an atomic bomb, the details would shorten the time needed to fashion a hydrogen device.

The Hansen letter was published in its entirety by the Chicago Tribune Tuesday, and portions were also published Tuesday by the Daily Californian, a campus newspaper in Berkeley, Calif. About half of the letter, which takes up 18 typewritten pages, is devoted to a technical description of bomb construction and its historical development. The remainder is a denunciation of By ROBERT GILLETTE L.A. Times-Washington Pest Service A letter describing the construction of a hydrogen bomb published by a Madison, newspaper appears to go far beyond any previous public disclosure of the principles underlying thermonuclear weapons, even in technical journals. The letter, written by Charles Hansen, a 32-year-old computer programmer from the San Francisco Bay area, provides few engineering details of thermonuclear bomb construction.

But it appears to contain, in essentially accurate schematic form, all of the basic operating principles that the federal government has sought to keep secret for more than two decades. Even with the details, it would still PSI chief sulted from an earthquake, but they didn't when the disturbance occured. The oversight has sent the cost of the bridge soaring, and it will probably have cost $21.5 million by its expected completion around Dec. 1. The bridge, the last to be built for 1-24, was supposed to cost less than any other major-river bridge on the interstate, which runs from Chattanooga, to the St.

Louis area. But, instead, it has cost the most and taken more than three times the allotted time to build. The bridge is just 1,731 feet long of the case filed by both The Progressive and the government in the court case against the magazine. Samuel H. Day, The Progressive's managing editor, said that, although Hansen had been in touch with the magazine, he was "certain" that he had not seen the controversial Morland article.

In his now widely disseminated letter, however, Hansen acknowledges having read characterizations of the Morland article that were subsequently ordered classified by the federal government. According to government affidavits filed in the Progressive case, other governments in possession of nuclear weapons have taken between 29 and nine years to find the one "superior" route through the labyrinth of inefficient the delays would drive up the cost of the project, which was originally estimated at $1.86 billion. He also declined to say whether company shareholders or its customers in 69 Indiana counties would have to bear the added costs. He said PSI will not reap the benefits it had expected from the relatively fast construction schedule and fixed-price contracts. "Our accomplishment in terms of end costs is not going to be as low as we had hoped," he said.

In order meet NRC requirements to resume safety construction, Barker said PSI plans to hire 12 of the consulting firm's employees experienced in nuclear-power-plant construction and operation to work during construction at Marble HilL In addition, he said, some PSI employees will be shifted from the See MARBLE HILL Back page, col. 5, this section By BILL POWELL Courier-Journal Staff Writer LAKE CITY, Ky. An earthquake believed to have hit Kentucky early in the last century or even before that has now produced a costly aftershock for taxpayers. Jumbled rock believed to be the result of a severe earth disturbance was cited yesterday by engineers as the main reason why the bridge over the Cumberland River on Interstate 24 in Western Kentucky is costing from $6 million to $8 million more than expected. the federal government's efforts to maintain the secrecy of nuclear weapons design.

In a news conference in San Francisco Tuesday, Hansen said, "I don't believe I've broken any laws" by giving newspapers copies of the letter he originally wrote to Sen. Charles Percy, R-Ill. He said he was "taken by surprise" by the national attention brought by publication of his letter. Hansen's attorney, Marcus Topel, said that he had been in touch with the Department of Justice but that he was unable to learn whether the government intended to prosecute Hansen. Barker said PSI and its contractors plan to hire more employees with nuclear experience, a recommendation of the consulting firm, Managment Analysis of San Diego, Calif.

But he said it would probably be three months before PSI tried to start up construction on the areas related to nuclear safety. The utility has not yet set a date to discuss its plans, or the firm's findings, with the NRC, Barker said. He said the company's plans to put Marble Hill's first nuclear reactor in operation in late 1982, after 4i2 years of construction, have been found to be "unrealistic." "While it now appears that our Initial cost estimate and schedule were overly optimistic, we fully expect that Marble Hill will present the most economical option available," he said. He would not estimate when the plant blames Marble Hill woes on inexperience Hansen described himself as an amateur scientist interested in nuclear weapons since 1971. He said he was a "very conservative Republican" who "didn't think any U.S.

government agency has the right to dictate what people say or think." He was motivated, Hansen said, by a desire to support The Progressive, a small populist-liberal magazine that fought a federal injunction against publication of its own hydrogen-bomb description by free-lance writer Howard Morland. The injunction was lifted after the Madison paper published Hansen's letter on Sunday. Hansen insisted in both the news conference and in his letter that he derived his H-bomb description from unclassified sources, including public portions might begin operation, but after the news conference he said it would be before the late 1980s. Many utilities spend six years building a nuclear plant, but Barker said PSI believed it could cut down on construction delays and money by patterning the plant after Commonwealth Edison's Byron (111.) nuclear plant under construction near Lake Michigan. In addition, PSI signed agreements with construction contractors, holding them to firm prices for their work.

Asked how the company was able to proceed with construction without a depth of experience by its employees, Barker said the company had been "misled" by the apparent advantages of speeding up the project by making Marble Hill a near-duplicate of another power plant, and by the fixed-price contracts. He declined to estimate how much The consultants, Barker said, confirmed the findings of a commission investigation conducted from July 21 to July 27 at Marble Hill. The commission said PSI was understaffed and that its-employees lacked experience in the construction of nuclear plants. Barker said that "preliminary discussions with the managment firm show clearly that the problems at Marble Hill were more serious than 'initially realized." "Fortunately," he said, "these deficiencies have caused no irreparable damage. They have been caught soon enough to permit timely correction." Barker said the study showed that the employees of both PSI and the Gust K.

Newberg Co. of Chicago, the prime contactor, "lacked sufficient nuclear experience." The lack of experience, he said, resulted in "deficiencies in documentation, Inspection and workmanship" during construction. The Carter administration is considering several options to put an economic squeeze on the Soviet Union if the Russians refuse to resolve the Issue of Soviet combat troops in Cuba A 2 Accent 8-11 The Almanac 10 Classified ads 16, 18 Comics 17 Deaths 18 Dimension page A 11 Marketplace A 5, 8, 9 Opinion page A 10 People A 2 Racing entries 15 Show clock 9 Sports 12-15 TV, radio 2 4 By KAY STEWART Courier-Journal Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. The president of Public Service Indiana said yesterday that the lack of nuclear-power-plant experience by employees of both the utility and the main contractor was the primary cause of construction problems at the Marble Hill nuclear plant. PSI President Hugh A.

Barker also said an overly optimistic construction schedule and fixed-price agreements with contractors contributed to problems that forced the utility to halt safety-related work at the plant on Aug. 7. The plant site is along the Ohio River, near Madison, 31 miles upstream from Louisville. At a news conference, Barker discussed the preliminary findings of a three-week study by a consulting firm PSI hired at the request of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission..