Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1982-07-13

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74th Year No. 254 Good Morning! It's Tuesday, July 13. 1982 2 Sections - 1 0 Page 25 ni
UE expecting
30 rate hike
Customers may pay
for Callaway overruns
By Ellen Hosmer
Missourian staff writer
Unless Columbia Water and light
Department can find alternative
sources of energy, Columbians may
face a hefty increase in their electric
bills as a result of constructing the
Callaway Nuclear Power Plant
The increase was forecast by a
Union Electric official who blamed
Callaway Nuclear Power Plant,
which is Hearing completion in Re-form,
Mo. in Callaway County, for
the fact that rates could increase
more than a third. The rate hike is
designed to offset rising construction
costs.
" The cost of building these things
has gone up a tremendous amount,"
said Charles Proctor, Union FJ. ec- tric- ' s
supervisor of nuclear informa-tion.
" When we actually go commer-cial,
utility bills will go up by 30 or 35
percent."
Columbia now buys 30 to 40 per-cent
of its energy from Union Elec-tric.
The city buys another 30 to 40
percent from the Sikeston Municipal
Power Plant and meets the remain-der
of its needs with the city power
plant.
Approval for the rate increase
must first come from the Missouri
Public Service Commission, but the
city isn't waiting; it's beginning to
explore alternatives now.
The city will try to reduce signifi-cantly
the amount of energy it buys
from Union Electric to lessen the im-pact
of the rate hike, said Dick Ma- lo- n,
Columbia Water and light De-partment
director.
Inaccurate completion date esti-mates,
cost overruns, inflation, addi-tions
and government regulations
have plagued the Callaway nuclear
plant from the beginning, causin& an
almost 300 percent increase over the
estimated cost. Union Electric, in or-der
to show any profit from the en-deavor,
says it will have to pass on
these costs to its consumers.
The plant lies on 7,200 acres ( 2,880
hectares) of farmland, forests and
wildlife areas. It is being con-structed
. by Union Electric Cos. of
St Louis', with Daniel International
as its general contractor.
The power plant's huge cooling
tower which stands almost as high
as the Gateway Arch and is almost
as big around as Busch Stadium
can be seen for miles around. Al-though
the plant is nearly 80 percent
complete, it is not expected to be
ready to begin generating electricity
commercially until at least 1S84.
The nuclear- powere- d plant was
originally scheduled to be ready by
1981, but construction delays and in-creasing
government regulation
have pushed that date back to 1S82
and then to 1934. These extensions
have cost the plant an estimated $ 300
million, Proctor said.
The estimates of total cost for the
plant have increased, too. In 1973,
Union Electric had plans to build
two reactors at Callaway at a total
cost of approximately $ 1.1 billion.
Now, even after scrapping plans for
the second reactor, the estimate has
jumped to $ 2.1 billion.
Union Electric had already spent
$ 70 million on preliminary construc-tion
for the second reactor when it
was abandoned in the fall of 1981.
Proctor said the increased costs for
one plant precluded the possibility of
building another one at this time.
" Basically, we can't afford it,"
Proctor said.
A cost Union Electric had not
counted on was the construction of
what Proctor calls the " Three Mile
Island Addition." After an accident
in which a hydrogen bubble threat-ened
to cut the flow of cooling water
to a reactor core at the Three Mile
Island nuclear power plant near
Harrisburg, Pa., Proctor said it be-came
necessary to train those oper-ating
the plant more thoroughly.
" We have a very expensive plant,
and we have to make sure it oper-ates
well. We're the ones who stand
to lose money if it doesn't' '
Union Electric has spent $ 10 mil-lion
for a simulated control building
that will train plant operators to
handle emergencies. The full- sca- le
duplicate of the control room will be
used. by. the plant operators to test
their decision- makin- g skills, where
they will face thousands of accident
scenarios and gain expertise on how
to face possible problems.
Another expense, storage of high- lev- el
radioactive wastes, has not
been determined. It might increase
costs for consumers even more. The
federal government will be responsi-ble
for the designation and mainte-nance
of the site. " After the federal
government makes the repository,
we will pay for it. Then, that will be
in the rates," Proctor said. " It's the
customers who are going to get the
benefits, and they ought to be paying
the costs."
Proctor blamed Amendment 1 as
. . Adam J. hwl pholot Trailers serve as offices during the construction phase at the Callaway plant
one of the causes of the drastic in-- r
crease in consumer utility prices t
that could occur when the plant be--
gins operation. The amendment,
passed in 1976, stipulates that con-struction
costs cannot be passed on .
to consumers until a plant is fully op-erational.
Instead of passing the interest of ;
the construction loans on to consum-- '
ers through the rate structure, Union
Electric was forced to pay the inter-est
itself, Proctor said. If the compa-ny
could have passed the interest on
to consumers during construction,
the increase would have been spread
out over the years of construction
rather than raising it in one lump
sum, he explained. Passing the cost
to consumer also would have less-ened
the impact of the high prices of
borrowing money, Proctor said.
Other reasons Proctor cited for the
increase in costs are inflation in
building materials, labor expenses
and the high price of borrowing mon-ey,
j
To pass these costs on to utility ;
consumers, however, the corpora- - j
tion has to convince the Missouri 1
Public Service Commission that the 8
rate increase is justified. Ron I
Sluegge, director of the electricity I
department for the commission, said
the costs of the plant would be exam-ined
before they can be put into the
rate structure.
" The commission's staff has been A
working for two and one- ha- lf to three F
years on analyzing the entire costs t
of the plant" Sluegge said. f
" The number that they are quot- - "
ing the 30 to 35 percent is as--
ssuming that the full costs of the
plant will go into the rate base,"
Sluegge said.
a535S& 2tak fiMgaJSli MSiSfeaw T& SlgpL, iSffS KKH
Workers ready the main reactor area
Flightme Airlines add, drop local service
By Tang Wang and JeffFox
Missouriaa staff writers
Ozark Airlines giveth and Ozark Airlines taketh
away. And Monday it announced it's doing both.
On Aug. 1, it will inaugurate a new flight linking Co- -
to Springfield, Mo., on the one hand and St
IluLmoubisi, athen Chicago, on the other. At the same time, it
will cancel a flight originating in Milwaukee and stop-ping
at Columbia before continuing to Joplin.
The new service, Flight 553, will originate in St
Louis at 1 : 05 pjn. and arrive in Columbia at 1 : 35 pjn.,
before continuing on to Springfield at 1: 53 pjm. From
Springfield, it will return to St. Louis and proceed to
Chicago, arriving at 4: 59 pjn.
It will replace Flight 507, which originates in Mil-waukee
and arrives in Columbia at 7: 10 pjn. before
continuing to Joplin at 7: 25 pjn.
Phil Glabb, Ozark's station manager at Columbia
Regional Airport, said the airline believes the new
schedule will serve the needs of a larger portion of its
Columbia passengers.
Glabb noted yet another adjustment in the Ozark
schedule which could be of concern to Columbia's
long- distanc- e travelers. Effective in August, Flight
501 will originate in Philadelphia and fly directly to
St. Louis before continuing on to Columbia. The flight
currently originates at Chicago.
Meanwhile, Air Midwest officials said they have
sold two landing slots at St. Louis' Lambert Field to
Trans World Airlines one of the slots currently is
used by Air Midwest on a Columbia- to- S- t Louis
flight Cancellation of the Columbia- to- S- t. Louis leg of
Flight 844 was announced two weeks ago and will be-come
effective Aug. 15.
Flight S44 is an evening flight originating at Kansas
City International Airport and stopping at Columbia
before continuing to St. Louis. Beginning Aug. 15, that
flight will originate in Kansas City at 2: 15 pjn. but
will end in Columbia at 2: 55 pjn. Air Midwest will
then add to its schedule a flight originating in Colum-bia
at 3: 10 pjn. and arriving in Kansas City at 3: 50
pjn.
This will give Air Midwest three flights a day be-tween
Kansas City and Columbia.
David Ewing, Air Midwest director of flight con-trol,
said that because Kansas City is the hub of the
airline's operation, focusing on Columbia- Kansa- s
City routes will improve his company's cost efficien-cy.
He said Air Midwest hopes to increase its service
( See AIRLINE, Page 6A.)
By Gerald Nadter
United Press International
TEL AVIV, Israel Israel's thrust into Leb-anon
has threatened to turn into what the
small nation fears most a grinding war of
attrition.
The " Peace for Galilee" campaign is five
weeks old and Israel's casualties are mounting
284 dead and 1,570 wounded in battles
against the PLO and Syria's regular army.
But besides raising the number of casualties,
a war of attrition threatens toe nation's mo-rale,
harms the economy and hurts Israel's
image abroad because of TV scenes showing
refugees and Israel's army bombarding an
Arab capital.
" Israel will not accept a war of attrition," a
senior Israeli official said Sunday, and the
warning was repeated Monday.
The bulk of the war casualties occurred in
the first six days of the war that brought the
army to the outskirts of Beirut
There are hints that Israeli soldiers, among
the world's most motivated, have questioned
the reasons for the recent fighting, though mo-rale
remains high.
Israel will not tolerate a " war of attrition,"
Chief of Staff Lt Gen. Rafael Eitan told an ar-mored
front- lin- e unit earlier this month in re-sponse
to a soldier's question about losses in
fighting for the Beirut- Damasc- us highway.
But the incipient battles have continued be-tween
cease- fire- s, which sometimes appear to
break down soon after they are declared, and
the Israelis blame the PLO.
The war stretched on after the Israeli Army
cornered Yasser Arafat and his 6,000 PLO
guerrillas in West Beirut and held back to al-low
U. S. diplomacy to prevent a bloodbath in
the city, where thousands of civilians reside.
Defense Minister Ariel Sharon asked this
month for patience and coolheadedness to let
the army complete the task of ridding Lebanon
of the PLO guerrillas by keeping the pressure
on.
But anti- w- ar demonstrations erupted, in-cluding
a gathering of an estimated 20,000 a
large crowd by Israeli standards at a Peace
Now protest in Tel Aviv.
The war has cost Israel about $ 30 million a
day, or a total so far of $ 1 billion a huge sum
in a nation whose gross national product is less
than $ 20 billion.
And last week Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.
Gen. Moshe Levy said Israel's Army is prepar-ing
for the possibility of spending the winter in
Lebanon.
The Ministry of Defense, the newspaper
Ma'ariv reported, is demanding an increase in
the defense budget of $ 1.4 billion to cover the
costs of the war and military preparations for
the next two years.
The government has raised the value added
tax on all purchases from 12 to 15 percent and
increased gasoline taxes in a nation where
prices already double every year.
The next step may be a hike in income taxes
a step not likely to cheer Israelis, already
one of the most heavily taxed people in the
world.
Aireste net
millions
in cocaine
Largest inland
bust in history
CHATTANOOGA. Term. ( UPI) --
Two women and seven men were ar-rested
in the seizure of $ 400 million
worth of cocaine in the nation's larg-est
inland drug bust Sunday. U. S.
Magistrate Roger Dickson set the
bonds totaling $ 3.9 million at the ar-raignment
Monday.
The suspects were charged with
conspiracy to violate drug laws and
possession with intent to distribute
1,254 pounds ( 564 kilograms) of co-caine
found in a blue Chevrolet van
parked at an Interstate 75 truck stop
near Chattanooga.
The cocaine, stuffed into 26 duffle
bags with markings from South
America, remained in the van Mon-day
and was guarded at the Hamil-ton
County Jail by deputies carrying
machine guns.
Bond was set at $ 1 million each for
David A. Warren, 42, Smyrna, Ga.,
Michael Brigganee, 25, Nashville,
Tenn., and James C. Trammell, 56.
of Atlanta; at $ 500,000 for Robert S.
George, 59, Atlanta, and at $ 250,000
for Marvin Echols, 29, Smyrna. Ga.
Bonds of $ 50,000 each were set for
Jackqueline Gurley, 20, Chattanoo-ga,
and Jennifer Oxendine, 18, of
Lumbetton, N. C. and for Mark Scar-borough,
19, of Rockwood, Tenn. No
bond was set for Jackie Wayne Scar-borough,
40, of Pontiac, Mich.
The nine face a U. S District Court
preliminary hearing July 20. They
face prison sentences of up to 15
years and a maximum $ 20,000 fine if
convicted.
Warren, Trammel, George and
Echols, traveling in a four- vehic- le
caravan, were arrested at a Cleve-land
truck stop when they pulled in
to buy gasoline. Agents said they ap-parently
were headed to Georgia and
Florida to distribute the cocaine .
The other five were arrested a
short time later at the Coachman
Motel at Loudon, Tenn.
U. S. Attorney John Gill said Brig-ganee
earlier had driven the coc-aine-
laden van to the motel and
handed the keys to Warren.
Warren, a brother- in- la- w of
Echols, testified Monday under ques-tioning
that he had been convicted of
drug conspiracy in Colombia, South
America, and had served a 27- mo- nth
prison term.
Although Warren identified him-self
as an independent heavy equip-ment
broker, Gill said Warren " is
certainly the main individual in light
of his past history."
The cache had a street value of
$ 400 million, officials said.
Cockpit recorder examination
delays jetliner crasti analysis
KENNER, La. ( UPI) A malfunctioning cockpit re-corder
will delay at least a week analysis of a tape which
could determine whether pilots of a Pan Am jetliner
heard wind shift warnings minutes before a takeoff and
crash that killed 153 people, an investigator said Mon-day.
Patricia Goldman, vice chairman of the National
Transportation Safety Board, said the " wind shear"
alerts warning ground traffic of sudden shifts in wind
direction and speed were issued about six minutes be-fore
the 727- 20- 0 became airborne Friday.
" If it ( the tape) is clear enough for us to hear the con-versation
... we will know whether they heard it," Ms.
Goldman said.
Pan Am flight 759 took off during a heavy thunder-storm
and crashed at approximately 4: 10 pjn. CST, tear-ing
through a residential surburb and spraying ' a two- blo- ck
area with debris and deadly, flaming jet fuel.
All 145 people aboard were killed, along with eight peo-ple
on the ground.
At least seven people on the ground were injured, and
three remained hospitalized Monday.
" The purpose of giving the wind shear alerts is to give
the pilot some idea of the kind of weather he may be fly--
ing into," Ms. Goldman said. " It's the nitot's decision at
all times whether to take- o- ff or not"
The damaged cockpit tape was sent to FBI labs in
Washington, where sophisticated equipment was to be
used in an effort to enhance the sound.
" The head was not properly aligned on the cockpit re-corder,"
Ms. Goldman said. " When that is taken care of,
it ( the tape) will come back to us and we will try to elimi-nate
background noises. It could take a week or two
weeks."
The investigators said the tape should prove whether
the pilots heard the broadcast wind shear warnings.
" When the voice recorder is cleared up, we would be
able to verify whether they had the local frequency on as
required and whether they would have heard it ( the
warnings).
" There is no reason that I know of that they would not
have had the local frequency on."
At the crash scene, work crews used bulldozers to flat-ten
the rubble of 13 homes ravaged by the crash and fire,
and searchers continued the grim task of pulling bodies
from debris.
As of late Sunday, 215 black bags containing bodies or
body parts had been taken to a makeshift morgue set up
in a Delta hangar.
8: 15 pjn. " On Golden Pond,"
presented by Summer Reper-tory
Theater, University The-ater.
7 pjn. Board of Adjustment
meeting. Council Chambers,
County- Cit- y Building.
7: 30 pjn. Human Rights
Commission, Fourth- Floo- r
Conference Room, County- Cit- y
Building,
Index
Classified-
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.2- 3- B
Comics 4B
Opinion 4A
People .3A
I Sports IB .