2—The Daily Collegian Thursday,. June 11, 1987
Machine made crises help save lives
Simulators help students prepare for real-world disasters
By JEANNETTE GIBSON
Collegian Science Writer
A sudden explosion rocks the earth as a column
of fire shoots from an oil well and transforms the
rig into a towering inferno with a blaze that rises
‘several hundred feet in the air.
A ventilation failure results in air that is quickly
polluted by gas and dust, leaving miners who
may be working up to three miles away from each
other surrounded by air that is dangerous to
breathe.
While those scenarios are fictionalized, the
death and destruction caused by an actual oil rig
blowout or ventilation failure are very real for
engineers, said a University petroleum engi
neering instructor and a professor of mining
engineering.
Through the use of two unique pieces of equip
ment the Simtran Drilling Rig Floor Simulator
and the Mine Ventilation Laboratory students in
the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences have
the opportunity to learn to deal with these types of
situations before they assume actual on-the-job
positions, said R.V. Ramani, professor of mining
engineering.
The simulators provide the best available substi
tute for field experience and the potential to
prevent tragedies, such as oil rig blowouts or black
lung disease, an affliction resulting from poor
ventilation in mine shafts, Ramani said.
Students enrolled in Petroleum and Natural Gas
Botha renews S. African state of emergency
By LAURINDA KEYS
Associated Press Writer
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
President P.W. Botha said yesterday
he had renewed a national state of
emergency that during the past year
has given police wide powers to crack
down on people protesting apartheid.
“Considering the safety of the pub
lic and the maintenance of public
order, I have decided to proclaim a
state of emergency once more in the
whole of the republic, including the
self-governing national states (black
tribal homelands),” Botha told Par
liament in a speech he repeated on
national television. “I have already
signed the documents in this connec
tion.”
Botha’s June 12, 1986, state-of
emergency decree and a series of
related regulations empowering po
lice to restrict freedom of speech,
press and assembly were due to ex
pire at midnight today. The new
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decree legally extends the state of
emergency for up to a year.
By law and custom, apartheid es
tablishes a racially segregated socie
ty in which South Africa’s 24 million
blacks have no vote in national af
fairs. The 5 million whites control the
economy and maintain separate dis
tricts, schools and health services.
Botha said the background
“against which deeds of violence and
unrest were being planned and exe
cuted” last June still exists.
When Botha declared the emergen
cy last year, he cited statistics on
increases in public violence. More
than 20,000 people have been detained
without charge since then, but the
government indicated earlier this
month that, just over 3,000 were still
being held.
The Detainees Parents Support
Committee reported a few hours be
fore Botha’s Parliament speech that
a large number of black community
leaders had been released from de-
$5.50
451 spend 15 hours a semester with the oil rig
simulator which is located on the second floor of
the Mineral Sciences Building, said Stan Supon,
who is in charge of the lab and an instructor of
petroleum engineering.
“The (drilling rig) simulator provides the stu
dents with valuable training that they would not
get otherwise until they are on the job,” Supon
said.
He noted that the simulator at the University is
the only one in the northeastern United States and
is officially licensed by the Department of Interior
to certify off-shore drillers.
“We are one of the very few. universities to have
a machine of this magnitude,” Supon said. “We
are able to let students in a drilling lecture apply
the class material to a simulated real situation
which allows them to learn and to make mistakes
without penalty.”
The benefit of that experience is that students
can learn to deal with potentially catastrophic
problems in the early stages in order to prevent an
actual disaster.
Ramani said the mine ventilation lab at the
University is “a tremendous substitute” for exper
imentation at an actual mine site.
“You cannot get any closer to the real world,”
he said.
“Two underground tunnels were included in the
original design of the Mineral Sciences Building
more than 50 years ago, so the groundwork for the
lab was already in place,” Ramani explained.
tention yesterday without explana
tion.
Some legal experts said that any
one detained under the expiring
emergency would have to be re
leased, but that they could be imme
diately detained again and did not
necessarily have to be formally
freed.
Many provisions of the emergency
regulations have been challenged in
court over the past year, and some
sections have been overturned. The
government was expected to rewrite
portions of the new emergency regu
lations to meet the courts’ objections
and tighten restrictions in some
cases.
The government has succeeded in
sharply reducing unrest in the past
year through mass detentions of
black activists, militants ad youths;
heavy security force presence in the
townships; prohibitions on demon
strations and meetings; and new pro
grams to provide houses, basic
GIVE A
6ETA
“Trap doors in the basement of the building allow
students to enter and experience the environment
of an actual mine shaft.”
Three large fans are used to draw air in and out
of the concentric tunnels, with different blowing
modes possible, Ramani added.
The benefit of simulated mining experience for
students is similar to that received by students
who work with the oil rig simulator.
Students spend approximately 24 hours working
in the mining ventilation laboratory during the
semester, where they receive training that is
“absolutely critical for health and safety in mining
engineering,” Ramani said.
“Mine ventilation works very much like a city
subway,” Ramani said. “The function of ventila
tion is to take fresh air from the surface to places
where men work, providing them with the clean
air they need to breathe.”
The consequences of poor ventilation are some
times experienced by miners later in life when
illnesses such as black lung disease, which can
produce respiratory problems, result from pro
longed exposure to coal mine dust.
“Although some of the equipment is more than
50 years old, engineers and academics who visit
Penn State are impressed with our equipment,”
Ramani said.
According to Ramani, mines today are much
safer than ever because of improved health and
safety training.
municipal services and jobs to black
communities.
In the past year more than 400
people have died from the unrest,
which has included fighting between
rival black political groups. But the
daily rate of deaths, property dam
age and violent incidents is down,
according to figures from the govern
ment and independent groups.
Despite that, “the underlying revo
lutionary climate in many parts of
the country has not abated,” the
government Bureau for Information
said less than an hour before the
Botha speech.
“It is the opinion of the South Afri
can authorities that lifting the state of
emergency under the present circum
stance would quickly result in a re
newed cycle of violence and unrest,”
the bureau said.
Botha announced the extension of
the emergency in a rare address to a
joint sitting of the three houses of
Parliament.
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notes
a The Graduate Student Associa
tion will show From Mao to Mozart in
Fisher Plaza tonight at 8.
• The HUB Craft Centre will hold
an open house tonight from 7 to 9.
• Summer Session Diversions will
sponsor a music recital in Fisher
Plaza today at noon.
Plant doctor takes over
By SEMELE HALKEDIS
Collegian Science Writer
Most people know what to do when they get sick,
but what about when their plants get sick? Call the
plant doctor, of course.
John Peplinski, commonly known as the “plant
doctor,” said if someone gives him a sample of a
diseased plant, he can diagnose the disease and
explain how to treat it.
Peplinski, coordinator of the University’s Plant
Disease Clinic, diagnoses problems in plant speci
mens from all over the state.
“We get samples from commercial growers
across Pennsylvania as well as Pennsylvania
homeowners,” he said.
About half his specimens come from commer
cial growers, including greenhouses and nurse
ries, and the other half come from homeowners, he
said.
Peplinski said he also works in conjunction with
the University’s Cooperative Extension Service,
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police log
• A $44 car emblem was reported
missing Tuesday by Jan Hagen-Fred
eriksem, 315 S'. Allen, State College
Bureau of Police Services said.
• University Police Services said
they ordered a vehicle parked in a
traffic lane on Sh'ortlidge Road towed
after an unsuccessful effort to locate
the vehicle’s owner.
which sends him specimens from its various
offices which are located in every Pennsylvania
county.
Scott Harkcom, assistant agent for the extension
service in Centre County, said that although it is
possible for some specimens to be identified in his
office, the majority are sent to Peplinski at the
Plant Disease Clinic.
“We give information on how to get a sample
sent in (to the clinic), or we will take them in
ourselves if people bring them to us,” he said. He
added that individuals who want to send their
specimens directly can use the Plant Disease
Clinic Kit, which can be obtained from either the
clinic or the extension service.
Harkcom said the extension office is really
“more of an educational branch’ 1 than a diagnos
tic clinic. The Centre County office, as well as
others across the state, primarily keeps in touch
with growers to let them know if there are any
prevalent diseases they should watch for in their
plants.
THANK YOQ
A special thanks to the voters that
supported my candidacy for re-elec
tion as Centre County Register of Wills.
Your Continued support will be greatly
appreciated.
Roger A. Bierly
Register
Paid for,by the candidate
• A wallet and dorm key valued at
$29 was reported missing by Dave
Trobert, 419 Atherton Hall, Universi
ty police said.
• Vehicle trim valued at $2O was
reported missing by the vehicle’s
owner, Ted Perry, 801 Southgate
Drive, while it was parked in parking
lot 80, University police said.
where green thumbs fail
• A dog was apprehended near
Grange Building and taken to the
SPCA, University police said.
• University police said one of two
persons found in Ewing Hall with
alcoholic beverages was referred to
the office of student conduct stan
dards after they refused to produce
identification. Police said both were
found to be over 21. —by Karl Hoke
Communications methods include monthly
newsletters- sent out by the extension service
county offices as well as the extension computer
service, a system people can hook their home
computer into by contacting their county agent.
Communication is very important, particularly
for commercial growers who depend on plants for
their livelihood.
“It can be really important that we diagnose and
get in touch with people because some things can
put people out of business,” Harkcom said.
Peplinski said he is responsible for every sample
that comes into the disease clinic, including those
sent from the extension office and those brought
directly to the clinic.
However, he added, at times he runs into dis-
eases with which he is not familiar. When that
happens, he consults with other members of the
plant pathology department.
“Each of our faculty members backs
(Peplinski) up in our area of expertise,” said Gary
Moorman, assistant professor of plant-pathology.
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