The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 1

SECOND Chronic pain centers Monsoon ease the hurt 1-B slows rescue The 3 Columbia, South Carolina Tuesday, FRONT rain Poll finds most favor aid for Olympic athletes 1-D State Largest South Newspaper Carolina's 97th year No. 236 August 23, 1988 4 sections 40 pages Savannah River reactors to get more safeguards Savannah River Plant nuclear reactors must be subjected to more rigorous checks and balances, and communications must be improved if potentially dangerous operational problems are to be avoided, an independent safety panel concluded Monday. The three-member committee met in emergency session to review events surrounding the aborted restart of the Reactor. SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT During the Aug. 7 restart, engineers contin- of what happened.

ued operating the reactor despite the presence reactor was never of unexplained "anomalies" and a subsequent committee Chairman "power spike," a phenomenon that can indicate "Our concern dangerous instability in a reactor. dural aspects of While the subcommittee found that safety The subcommittee was never jeopardized, all three members crit- on Aug. 30 to the icized the federal Department of Energy for Nuclear Facility using procedures that allowed continued opera- appointed earlier tion while the reactor was behaving tary John Herrington. erratically. DOE officials "We believe we have a clear understanding changes are already Under the three long rows of desks are 24 pairs of small feet, some fidgeting, some Class of still, almost all 2000 in new shoes: white with navy, white with black, white with pink, white that will never be that white again.

The room almost glitters with the newness of children and school supplies: new hair ribbons, new and pencils, new neon nylon bookbags. It's the first day of school at Pine Tree Hill Elementary in Camden, and our Class of 2000 is at work. First, they have to learn the rules. Cheryl Colvin has a neat list posted near the blackboard: 1. Follow directions the first time given.

2. Allow classmates to complete work. 3. Use a quiet voice and walk in the classroom. 4.

Use your own material. 5. Keep hands, feet and objects to See Class, 5-A AC ALL WASTE LOUT T-SHI Photos by Ginger State Students file in classroom Monday for their first day at Pine Tree Hill Elementary in Camden Class takes step on journey By CLAUDIA SMITH BRINSON dresses and T-shirts and shorts, new Senior Writer plastic boxes filled with sharp crayons Jackie Burkett starts work on one of her first school assignments for Ms. Colvin, her first-grade teacher It is our opinion that the strict the latitude reactor operators have and in an unsafe condition," sub- provide for faster and more accurate diagnosis Elmer Schwartz said. of problems.

is primarily with the proce- "There will be additional checks and balits operation." ances in the system," Len Sjostrom, DOE diwill submit its findings rector of production at Savannah River, said. full Advisory Committee on "The check-and-balance system will be Safety. The committee was brought in anytime we want a consensus on this year by Energy Secre- going forward with anything, such as starting a reactor." have acknowledged that being made that will re- See SRP, 4-A SPORTS help Weather: Partly cloudy. Highs in the upper 80s, lows near 70. Sunrise, 6:51.

Sunset, 8:03. Details, 8-B. Inside Richland County's Department of Social Services building could cost as much as $3.3 million. 1-C George Bush says Dan Quayle "didn't burn the American flag." 2-A Doctors order sprinter Ben Johnson to return to Canada. 1-D The city of Newberry offers to drop a suit against Newberry County.

2-C The Bakkers ask a group of charismatic Christians for forgiveness. 2-A USC President James Holderman chose his interns from prominent families, a report says. 1-C Index Abby 7-B Editorial 6-A Bridge 4-B Health. 1-B Business 8-D Sports 1-D Classified 4-C Television 6-B Comics 4-B Theater 7-B Deaths Murray Arrants Bishopville Thomas L. Bailey Columbia Thomas C.

Boggs, Florence Mrs. Pearl C. Boyd, Newberry Mrs. Hattie M. Copeland, Fairfax Howell Crosby, Walterboro C.

Olin Elmore, Sumter Sam W. Foster, Jonesville Mrs. Peggy T. Gignilliat, Spartanburg Mrs. Laura B.

Graham, Loris Mrs. Geneva S. Hanna, Peak James Herring, Rock Hill Clifton Houseal, Little Mountain George S. Jacobs, Georgetown David H. Johnson, Columbia Mrs.

Mary F. Johnson, Columbia Mrs. Linda Ladson David E. McInnis, Dillon Mrs. Alma B.

McKenzie, Sellers Mrs. Emma L. McMillan, Mullins Mrs. Annie B. Nowell, Columbia Mrs.

Blanche G. Pou, Pelion W. Wayne Ramsey, Summerville Mack Reed, Salley Herbert Riser, Columbia Robert M. Sharpe, Gilbert Harry R. Shurley, Rock Hill Mrs.

Linda J. Singleton, Fairfax Mrs. Violet R. Thompson, Olanta Mrs. Ruth C.

Trombley, Blythewood Mrs. Estelle W. Whittle, Columbia Harris M. Woodham, Bishopville Details, 7-D 2-A By CHARLES POPE Staff Writer Big Apple mayor bets Columbia can't prove claim By BILL ROBINSON Staff Writer Dear Abby didn't have the last word after all. Just when you thought you had read the last of this business about where New York City got its "Big Apple" nickname, along comes The New York Times giving prominent play to the theory favored in these parts.

"Big Apple: New York Nickname but With A Southern Accent?" read the headline in Monday morning's Times. The article explains how Columbians who were teenagers a half-century ago maintain the name came from a dance performed at a local nightclub frequented by blacks. Its publication in "the paper of record" has inspired a little World Series-type wager, fanned by a press corps tired of reporting about oppressive heat, hospital waste on beaches and drug wars in the city. Ed Koch, the colorful if not controversial mayor of Gotham, has agreed to offer a New York-style pizza pie to Columbia's own big cheese, Mayor T. Patton Adams, if he can prove the nickname came from the nightclub of the same name on Park Street in Columbia.

"The word we heard was (Koch) wasn't too pleased," Bill Hoffmann, a 1977 graduate of the University of South See Apple, 5-A Plants sealed off in Poland By KITTY McKINSEY Knight-Ridder Newspapers WARSAW, Poland Police sealed off major industrial plants Monday, and curfews were imposed on the three provinces hit hardest by pro-Solidarity strikes, as the Polish government took harsh measures to try to end the country's largest wave of strikes since 1981. Interior Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak, an army general who commands the uniformed and secret police, also said preventative detention and summary courts would be used to deal with strikers. Recalling the imposition of martial law in December 1981 to suppress the Solidarity trade union, Kiszczak appealed in a television broadcast: "Let's not let Poland become a country of lawlessness and anarchy." He warned the estimated 15,000 strikers throughout the country that their protests could lead to bloodshed. Various observers have called the current wave of strikes the most serious in Poland since the ones that led to the formation of Solidarity, and said it seemed more serious than unrest in April and May that followed the announcement of sharp price increases. See Poland, 4-A Shuttle chief says flight stakes high By HOWARD BENEDICT Associated Press SPACE CENTER, Houston The commander of the next space shuttle mission said Monday that the nation's manned could not survive another space program tragedy like the Challenger explosion.

"We clearly could not afford to lose another vehicle, much less another crew," Navy Capt. Rick Hauck told the final news conference he and his crew will hold before their launching, scheduled for late September or early October. "I don't think the manned spaceflight program could See Shuttle, 4-A It's not easy to tell how fast time flies Utilities have a hand synchronizing clocks By MICHAEL ARNDT Chicago Tribune CHICAGO You say your kitchen clock seems to be running a little slow or fast these days. Well, it is. The reason: what amounts to timetampering by electric companies.

Like anything with a synchronous motor in the United States and Canada, clocks with a sweeping second hand or a mechanical digital display are designed to run on an alternating current that has 60 cycles, or hertz, a second. Likewise, U.S. and Canadian power generators are synchronized to spin at a frequency that produces electricity that alternates 60 times a second. Problem is, the electricity that comes into your home is almost never exactly 60 hertz. Whenever power consumption and output slip out of balance an imbalance that typically occurs often in extreme weather when demand is high and a generator or transmission line goes down the power system responds by slowing down its generators, effectively stretching its output.

This means that the electricity leaving the power plant will be, say, 59.987 hertz or 59.913 hertz or some other number slightly below 60 hertz. In turn, this means that your clock's second hand turns just a little slower, advancing not 60 seconds a minute, but 59.987 seconds or 59.913 seconds or whatever the hertz rate is. Not a big deal, but, over time, it adds up. Furthermore, because utilities are interconnected, an imbalance at any utility will cause an instant slowdown at all electric companies tied to the power grid. Thus, if Commonwealth Edison Co.

in Illinois loses a nuclear power plant, the hertz dips not only in metropolitan Chicago, but throughout the Eastern United States and Canada. The slippage is registered by comSee Clocks, 5-A Now fork Perry State Ready for a battle Patton Adams in front of Big Apple.