,There is a gas
but severity
~By
KATY KOONTZ
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Despite inconsistencies in the oil
companies' predictions, most drivers
may not find it as much trouble to get
around this summer as they thought.
' The short:age scare is real, but not
t* serious enough to drastically alter
vacation plans. Conservation to some
degree is, however, recommended to
consumers by both oil companies and
local dealers. •
Dennis Byrne of Sun Oil Company
(SUnoco), said he anticipates "no
tremendous problems" with gas shor
# tages this summer, but he also
recognizes that there may be some spot
shortages.
He believes the danger may lie in
individual stations not limiting the
amount of gas their customers may buy.
If they don't spread it out, these stations
1 may sell out and close temporarily, he
said.
Sunoco is reducing its allocations from
90 percent of what stations ask for to 85
percent, he said.
Both Gibson's Sunoco and Graham's
Sunoco, State College service stations,
confirmed an 85 percent limit in the
amount of gas they receive. However,
A scale• model of the University's nuclear reactor is shown. To the right is an
actual rod used in the core. The University's Breazeale Nuclear Reactor Fa
!! cility is the oldest University reactor in existence.
Solar homes bring owners
By KAREN ROLLER
7)
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Somehow people don't mind 'getting up in the morning as
much when they awaken to sunshine pouring into their rooms
. • . and for a certain few, into their solar collectors.
Solar collectors are part of a solar home package for people
taking a free ride on heating, compliments of ol' Sol. Basically,
ki) the process goes like this.
The sun's rays are trapped in a solar collector a glass box
on a roof, for example creating a heat source. Water is
poured through the box and heated. The heated water then
circulates through the house to a heat storage tank, usually in
the basement or utility room, and then returns to the solar
collector. And presto, a house is heated a la sun.
Of course a house can be heated by the sun in many other
ways, too. Greenhouses connected to homes are a favorite, or
in the case of Mike Mease of Port Matilda, a greenhouse and a
32-ton stone and concrete wall built into the south side of the
house does the job. Mease said the wall, called a trombe wall,
is painted black to absorb the sun's rays.
_"l've always been interested in energy sources and saving
energy," Mease said. "Energy shortages are quite serious,
and there are some financial considerations to think about."
Mease, who is building the solar home and most of the inside
furnishings himself, said he and his wife were spending about
$l2O a month in oil bills until . they moved into their solar home
about a month ago.
Since they just moved in, Mease said he doesn't know for
sure how much the solar home will save them in energy bills,
but estimated spending only $lBO a year in utility bills about
$l5 a month for what little electricity. they will need.
Kit Hume, associate professor of English, said she and her
husband expect to spend about $lOO in heating costs next year
for their house which is "entirely designed to use solar
eriergy." .
Hume said the house, built last summer, uses a 525-foot solar
*collector, a heat pump, greenhouse, back-up electricity
system and a wood-burning stove. The fireplace generates
heat during the winter months by heating several loops of
piping built into a double wall around the fireplace. Water
flows through the pipes, attaining a temperature of 150 to 200
degrees, and circulates through the home to a solar tank.
If you burn a fire from about 5 to 10 p.m., you'll have
enough heat in the house for 24 hours," Hume said.
Don Graham, owner of Graham's;
Sunoco, said he believes there will be al
shortage that will get , worse as the'
summer progresses,
George Cavell, owner of a third Sunoco
station, said, "The situation looks pretty.
bad right now, especially with
unleaded."
Cavell said more cars requiring
unleaded gas are on the road, making'
the demand fox' unleaded gas higher. He
said his supply also has been cut back 15
percent, and he has reduced his hours as
well to help keep him from running out of
gas.
A spokesman for Mobil Oil said the
country might have a problem due to the
amount of oil that must be stockpiled for
heating. Oil companies reserve a certain,
amount of their product to be used as'
heating oil when demand is high in
winter.
Jeff Poorman of Ellis Mobil, 913 W.
College Ave., said the station's gas•
supply has been cut back to 85 percent of
what it was previously. He predicts a
shortage "as bad as the one in 1973.,"
Pat O'Connor, an Exxon official, said
"it is not going to cause long lines if
people don't panic." He said he believes
there will probably be a shortge this.
Photo by Chuck Andresko
"Of course, we haven't used any heat besides the sun in. the
last week," he added. "Several nights it was in the upper 20s
and 30s, but the house was still about 65 degrees when I got up
in the morning."
Solar homes make people aware of their environment and
also give them a sense of control over what happens to them,
according to Ted First, a major solar contractor.
People using the sun for energy won't just chatter about the
weather, First said. "They'll say 'lt's cloudy out today, so I'm
going to build a fire. But it will be sunny tomorrow so I won't
built too big of one so the sun can do the work.'
"A lot of people relate to outside temperature and how it
affects their building," he said. "They feel part of the en
vironment. And I think that consciousness, that being aware of
things, is very healthy."
Solar homes make for "good econothics,"First said. "I saw
it as unethical, stupid, even suicidal" that America uses about
30 percent of the world's resources. That's down from a high of
50 percent a few years ago, he said.
First, who built the Humes' house, started building solar
homes about five years ago and has built "about five energy
conscious homes in mostly residential areas," he said. When
building a home, he said, he looks at different factors, such as
where the winds are coming from, whether the ground is
stony, rocky or sandy, where the trees are, and whether the
ground is level or hilly. A home built into a hillside can use the
earth for insulation. Sometimes the site will contain a
"magnificent view that's too good to miss," he said, and that.
will have to be taken into consideration, too.
First said he then fits all those factors into what the
homeowners want. "It's more than just plopping down a home
on a lot," he said. "You want to design something for the
people who are going to live there." You have to see what kind
of a lawn they may want, any personal preferences they may
shortage,
unknown
Using a Russian-style continental fireplace to heat his home
during the winter is also part of Mease's plans. The fireplace is
like a masonry stove "where you don't see the fire," he said.
"You build a fire in the three-to-four-foot chamber. Gases go
up a seven-foot chimney, turn and go back down five feet. They
go over and up and down," he said. "All the heat from the wood
goes into the house. Very little escapes out the chimney.
"They say you can put your hand over the chimney and not
feel the heat at all," he said. "I'm really excited about this
thing.
summer because Iran is exporting only
60 percent of its usual amount.
O'Connor suggests three things that
will make significant contributions to
' saving gas and oil. He advocates
lowering thermostats to 65 degrees in the
winter and raising them to 75 degrees in
the summer. He also said driving at 55
miles per hour and increasing the oc
cupancy rate of airlines would help
relieve the problem.
Ricahrd Dyke of Bellefonte Exxon
service station disagrees with Exxon
officials. He said he does not think there
will be a shortage this summer, and
reports that he is getting 95 percent of
what he was getting last year not a
significant drop. He said people will be
traveling less if they think a gas shor
tage is looming above them,
"It just cost me $7:50 to fill up my
Volkswagen," Jim Scott (Bth-civil
engineering) said. "Last summer it only
cost me $5."
Dave Naugle (11th-social welfare)
said he thinks gas may be harder to get,
but he isn't sure it is because of a
decrease in supply. In reference to the
oil companies' relationship to a possible
shortage he said, "If they want one,
they'll make one."
University reactor aids research
By KATY KOONTZ
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Nuclear power has been hailed as the
answer to our energy crisis, and at the
same time has been condemned as the
potential cause of mass mutations and
cancer-related deaths.
The University's Breazeale Nuclear
Reactor facility on campus, involved in
research, instruction and training in
nuclear engineering, is trying to make
atomic power more of a solution than a
hazard.
The facility's director, Sam Levine,
said nuclear energy's biggest asset is
that it provides .an unlimited source of
energy at economic prices.
"It is the solution to our energy
problem if we want to use it," he said.
But in terms of energy, our future
looks bleak, he said. Levine says the
press was too sensationalistic in con
vering the Three Mile Island incident.
This has caused people to be afraid, and
caused a major setback in the com
mercial use of nuclear power.
Atomic power may not be publicly
approved of and allowed to continue
until people realize that it is inevitable,
Levine said.
He said this realization will come out
of suffering. Sometime within the next
decade and probably within the next five
years, Levine said that as a result as of
less oil, the public will have to go without
many of the luxuries it now enjoys. It
will be a new experience for Americans
that "is going to be a little frightening,
but it's going to happen," he said.
It takes years between the decision to
start up a nuclear power plant and the
day it starts to produce power, he ex
plains. Therefore, Levine predicts that
in 20 years, atomic power will be one of
the main suppliers of energy in the
country, if no catastrophies, like nuclear
war, happen first.
The threat of nuclear war staged by
the government and not just by terrorist
groups is a real danger, he said. He feels
the deprivation felt by Americans when
oil starts to run out may result in such a
situation.
"Nuclear war because of lack of oil is
the greatest hazard our generation
faces," he said, "and the more nuclear
power is used for energy, the less chance
there will be of nuclear war" since our
energy needs would be satisfied.
Nuclear power will be only one of the
country's major power sources in the
future. Coal, Levine said, will be the
other main source. A second energy
source is necessary because a nuclear
power plant cannot adjust its power
output during peak and slow periods.
Other energy sources are not at the
place where they can step in and take the
place of oil, Levine said. "Solar energy,"
for example, "has its place, but it's not
going to provide us with much energy
until after the year 2000."
Oil will clearly not last for very much .
longer, he said. He believes it is wrong to
use oil for electricity because it is
needed to heat homes and fuel tran
sportation vehicles.
The fission reactor will be the type of
reactor used in the near future, since the
fusion reactor is 50 years away ac
cording to Levine. The breeder reactor,
he explained, is not used in this country
because of political and moral reasons
related to the plutonium it produces and
uses.
Although this reactor is valuable
because it breeds more fuel than it
consumes, the hazards of plutonium
in touch with environment
Kit and David Hume's home,
energy."
have, like a Japanese garden, which you also have to keep in
mind, he said.
"The more ingredients there are, the more I enjoy it," he
said. "All the variables haven't gotten to me. The more
specialized, the more challenging."
First also said one of the benefits in using solar energy is
being taken and used for nuclear bombs
by unauthorized citizens outweigh the
benefits of the system to the scientists of
this country. France, however, has
developed a breeder reactor for its use.
But other hazards are on the minds of
Americans at the moment.
"Three Mile Island is going to teach us
a good deal about reactor hazards,"
Levine said. "TMI was put under the
most severe environmental conditions
one could anticipate, yet no one was
harmed." ;
Levine said nuclear power can be
environmentally safer than people
believe. "The hazards of actually killing
people are non-existent," he said. The
ultimate safety of the plant near
Harrisburg is its containment building.
If radiation escapes, it does not get out of
the building, Levine explained.
Today, . investigators are checking
ways in which people can make
mistakes, he said. "And reactors from
now on will be a lot safer."
The fission reactor is the type used
today. It produces an average of 2 1 / 2
neutrons per fission. Some of these
neutrons split uranium-235 atoms, an
isotope of uranium. The neutrons
produced then cause more fission
reactions, making a sustained nuclear
reaction.
To shut down the reactor control rods
containing boron, which are kept in the
reactor, are dropped down into the core
where the fissioning is taking place.
These are called "neutron poison,"
Levine explained, and absorb the
neutrons being emitted, preventing
them from fissioning more uranium
atoms and thereby stopping the reaction
completely.
To start the reaction again, the control
as a 525-foot so
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ector. The home is "entirely
saving money from being spent on foreign oil. "There's a
pipeline of money leaving this country," he said.
Mease also said using solar energy is beneficial in
eliminating the ever-rising cost of oil.
"I'm really tickled to death with solar energy," he said. "It's
like a free lunch."
The Daily Collegian Thursday, May 10, 1979-
24,0
rods are pulled out of the core just
enough to start the fissioning process
again. The automatic dropping of the
control rods into the core by the reactor
or the plant operators is called a scram.
The Breazeale Nuclear Reactor
Facility at the University does not
generate power for the community or
the residence halls, but instead is used
mainly for research. It is the oldest
university reactor in existence, and was
the second of 15 to 20 university reactors
to be built in the country. It also is the
only university-affiliated reactor in the
state, Levine said.
To ensure there is no danger to the
environment, the Nuclear Regulating
Committee inspected the Breazeale
reactor four times during the last report
period. According to the annual report,
no items of non-compliance were found.
This fission reactor was first built in
1955 and improved in 1965. Its low power
density with extra-inherent safety
characteristics built into the core make
it "the safest reactor in the world,"
Levine said.
Levine said it cost $300,000 when the
reactor was initially built, but to build it
today would cost several million dollars.
Excluding the salaries of the staff, the
Breazeale reactor costs about $30,000
annually to run, Levine said. The
government pays for the fuel, and some
other revenue comes in through
research contracts.
The wastes accumulated from the
reactor are low level, and are shipped to'
South Carolina to be buried. Levine said
the facility generates less radioactive
waste than the other University
departments also generating these
wastes, such as those involved in dating,
medicine or agriculture.
Illustration by Sandy Calandra
esigned to use solar