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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1979-04-04, Page 6Page 6—Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, April 4, 1979 The . ti LUCKNOW SENTINEL "The Sepoy Town" On the Huron -Bruce Boundary - ' D LUCKNOW, ONTARIO Established 1873 Published Wednesday Published by Signal -Star Publishing Ltd. Sharon J. Dietz - Editor Anthony N. Johnstone - Advertising and General Manager Subscription rate, $11 per year in advance Senior Citizens rate, $9 per year in advance U.S.A. and Foreign, $21.50 per year in advance Sr. Cit., U.S.A. and Foreign $19.50 per year in advance Business and Editorial Office Telephone 528-2822 Mailing Address P.O. Box 400, Lucknow, NOG 2H0 Second class mail registration number - 0847 Fear of .the unknown The threat of a nuclear disaster at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ,this past week has put into question the safety of nuclear power for, the generation of electricity. The Harrisburg situation can't help but create serious thoughts for those who . live' in this immediate area:- Residents 'here would be within the .evacuation zone if a disaster ever occurred at the Bruce or Douglas Point nuclear reactors. The biggest fear of such a disaster is a; fear of the unknown. It is .a fearakin to an invasion from outer space because the average person knows so little about nuclear reactors and how they work. Ontario Hydro insists. the Can -- du an -du reactors are safer and their safety systems, in case of break- down, are much more elaborate that . those, at the U.S. plant. No nuclear power system - can be guaranteed 100 per cent safe. Hydro has•. experts at Harrisburg now to learn all they can about the situation there, to determine if the -Candu system is indeed as safe as it can be made. To reassure the people of Ontario that • Candu . is ; safe, Ontario Hydro should hold 'public hearings to inform about nuclear power and its safety . measures: The findingsof the experts who went to Harrisburg should also be examined publicly. It would prov- ide a useful review of their safety system for Ontario Hydro and serve to reassure, the public. At Harrisburg, water failed to cool the reactor which overheated causing the water to turn to radio- active steam which escaped into the atmosphere. 1 The Bruce and Douglas Point plants have safety measures Which th Haarrisburg plant does not. The u reactors at Bruce and Douglas Point have giant vacuum buildings which automat- icallydraw lin and contain any radioactive 'water, steam or air emitted in case of malfunction. In the event of a leak similar'to the one. at Harrisburg the radio- active steam would have been contained in the vacuum building and would not have escaped into the atmosphere as it did at Harrisburg. Dr. Arthur Porter,'chairman of the Royal Commission into Elect- rical Power` Planning in Ontario Elect - , the vacuum building to a huge vacuum ,.cleaner .which sucks in the radioactive emission from the reactor. The_ vacuum building will also prevent the build-up, of a gas bubble like the one which threat- ens to create a chain reaction that would meltdown the Harrisburg reactor. All Candu reactors use heavy water which contains more hydro- gen in their cooling systems. They can operate at . much lower pressure than .. ordinary water which. is used in the U.S. systems. According to Dr. Porter all Candu reactors have an emerge cy core cooling System in,additiin to their regular cooling system, should the regular system fail as it did in Harrisburg. Ontario Hydro has studied mal- functions and.accidents simulated on computer equipcnent'to create, the design and engineering of the Candu reactors which are gener- -ally acknowledged to be the safest. and' most reliable in the world. Dr.' Porter admits however, hum- an error .cannot•be built' into computer simulation. Indeed, Hyro has had, problems with its cooling pipes and has an emergency plan for evacuating residents inthe area of its plants. The emergency . plan was - "fast tested in October. Great ocicey action For hockey fans in Lucknow last weekend was like Grey Cup weekend. Four games in all Ontario final series in two days. And the local teams did not dissapoint their fans. • The Juvenile series has shown consistent, solid play with excep- tional style and gentlemanly con- duct, The series game on Sunday prompted the referee to comment on the game report that both teams are well coached and a pleasure to referee. This is unusual for referees in the Juvenile category. The competition is tough and although they hope to wrap it up in Godfrey next weekend, Luck - now could find their opponents stronger on home ice. The Midget series has been, marred by the poor sportsman- ship of the Marmora opposition who had two players suspended with game misconducts and ac- cumulated so many minutes in penalties during the first game on Saturday, their coach was sus- pended from the Sunday game. The local lads picked up 15 penalties and were not without fault. But, in many cases the temper tantrums and outright roughness of Marmora players was inexcusable. Very few plays in the game were completed, be- cause someone was slashed, hookedboarded or shoved, In one instance. Marmora player intentionally hit a Lucknow player' with his stick while report- ing to the penalty box. The incident did not go unnoticed and the referee added an additional penalty. The Lucknow player did not retaliate and to the credit of his team and management showed that Lucknow players are good sports. The Midgets want a good match with Marmora and would rather play hockey than fight. The spectators at the arena on Saturday and Sunday expressed. their displeasure with the style of Marmora players. As. Bill Hunter, coach of the. Lucknow Juveniles, commented, it is only the minority who want the rough stuff. Most fans want good, solid, hockey action. ' Lucknow's teams play on their opponents' ice this coming -week- end. The Juveniles could win their series and bring home the .all Ontario cup. Good Luck, boys! May you come home. champions. The Midgets will certainly play another game in Lucknow on Easter weekend and will return to Marmora again to finish .,:up their point series. We look forward to another action packed game here and may the Marmora team clean up their act. Good luck .,in Marmora! Hopefully the fans won't be as antagonistic as their players and we hope Marmora will prove more gracious hosts. than they did guests. Good Luck, boys! The Porter Commission con- cluded last year that within reasonable limitations, nuclear power is safe. But no system can be too safe nor can it wipe away the chance of human error. The findings at Harrisburg should be examined by Hydro as a means ,of reviewing their' own system. Public hearings should be - held to inform the public of nuclear power and to reassure the people of Ontario that Candu- reactors are safe and reliable. Letters to the editor Write concerningOMP tor's note: A copy of the following letter i was sent home, with employees of Dominion Road Machinery, Goderich for them to use as a model in a letter writing campaign to members of the Ontario Legislature including Dennis Timbrell,Minister of Health; Premier William Davis; Stuart • Smith, ,leader of the Liberal Party; David Cassidy, leader of the New Democratic Party; Jack Rid- dell, MPP and Murray Gaunt, MPP. Dear Sir: 1 am writing yob this letter as I amextremely concerned about the recent actions of the Davis Government which makes clear its intentions to completely undermine and destroy the universal cover- age and social insurance approach to 011.1.13. In . this province a doctor participating in O.H.I.P. re- ceives 90% of the O.H.I.P. fee schedule as payment for his services. Furthermore, a doctor in Ontario has the legal right to opt out of O.H.I.P. and charge whatev- er he deems necessary which in many cases is 30% more than currently paid by O.H.I.P. In addition to all this, according to taxation statistics doctors are among the highest income earners in Canada. . Doctors in Ontario are opting out of O.H.I.P. in rapidly increasing numbers and charging fees ` which impose not only a financial hardship on the people of Ontario, but also, defeats the purpose of providing health care for everyone. ,. Moreover, when 'such opt- ing out takes place in smaller communities such as Goder- ich, Clinton, SeafortlOwith limited choice of physicians it imposes unwarranted expen- ses on workers and those on fixed incomes \and negates the principle of universal health care. In addition, the community as a whole sup- ports the cost of educating and training physicians through taxation. Therefore I would call on the Davis Government to make it mandatory for all physicians practising in Ont- ario . to be members of O.H4.1.P. with no opting out privileges and that their fees - be determined by a Health' Services Regulatory Board. Furthermore in my own community some doctors have chosen to opt out of O.H.I.P. and are charging approximately 30% above O.H.I,P. coverage. Also the local hospital has planned , cutbacks in the form of bed closures in order to comply. witha reduced' operating budget. I am very strongly opposed to bed closures, doctor drop- outs and to the $9.50 per day charge , after 60 days for an extended stay in hospital. 1 am requesting that you and the Davis Government re-evaluate your priorities and restore O.H.I.P: to its original objectives of ade- quate health care an•d_tu4.iver- sal coverage. I would like a reply outlin- ing your solution to these problems. Sincerely yours, Broom ball To the editor: The members of the Luck - now Leo Club wish to thank Ron Johnson and Brian Arn- old for refereeing at their broomball tournament and thanks also to Maggie Mac- Pherson for coaching. Thank you to the . chaperones for helping in the booth. at the last dance. It was appreciat- ed. Proceeds from the club's next dance will go to Easter Seal Campaign for crippled children. They are looking forward to a good turnout, The Lucknow Leo Club.