Aiken Standard (Newspaper) - July 12, 1997, Aiken, South Carolina Post 26 one game away from elimination Page IB AIKEN Old church Bridge Christian Church Comin Fatal crash Aiken man dies in Friday accident Page 3A Vol 128 No 193 Aiken South Carolina Saturday July 121997 Consortium Group wants contract SRS contractors hope fo cash in on nuclear waste disposal contracts By RODDIE BURRIS The four chief contractors at Savannah River Site have formed a consortium to com pete for the billion dollar Department of Energy con tracts that will turn weapons Plutonium into a fuel for ener gy Westinghouse Babcock Wilcox Bechtel National Inc and BNFL Inc Friday announced the formation of According to a spokesman for the group is lay ing the groundwork to design build and operate a facility that will fabricate the entire US inventory of excess plutonium into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors The DOE Jias estimated that such a plant would cost up to million to build requiring up to 175 construction jobs Additionally esti mates that it will require con tracts of billion or more to design build and operate such a plant over the life of the pro ject and DOE estimates that it will require 250 employees Estimates suggest that it could take from 10 years to 30 years to burn the excess inven tory of weapons plutonium depending upon the oxide mix the parties ultimately settled upon is a consortium of four nuclear services companies pursuing the critical work of reducing global danger from nuclear weapons BNFL Inc Presi dent and CEO Holland A ley said in an announcement released Friday The members of were carefully selected to cre ate a team of unheralded expe rience and business achieve ment together with a tailor made approach to the MOX option for disposition of our Please see GROUP page 3A Index Dear For The Record 7A Television 2C Deaths Herbert C Wright Irmo John Paul Walsh Aiken Leroy Smith Aiken Matthew Adam Aiken Rosemary Verna Myers Hays Aiken Obituary notices on page 5A Ga lottery Fridays winning numbers Cash 3 300 4 4620 101833221 The Big Game 1736444648 Big Money Ball 18 25c Former USC head released Staff photo by Scott Webster Taun Minh Pham left and Diep Ngoe Pham of Vietnam get their pictures made outside the courtroom where they became American citizens New American citizens i told to make a difference Associated Press ESTILL Former University of South Carolina President James Holderman who left that job in disgrace was released today from the federal prison where he served time for bank fraud a prison spokes woman said Holderman left the Federal Cor Institution in Estill at about 8 am spokeswoman Mat tese said He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison but was given credit for time he spent at a North Carolina prison for a mental evaluation His official release date was not until Sunday but federal Bureau of Prisons officials said their pol icy is not to release inmates on weekends He left with a town driver to the Hampton bus station and from there I couldnt tell you any more said has told friends he will return to Charleston where James Holderman was released from prison Friday he lived from 1992 until he entered prison in October Holderman who his doctors say suffers from mild manic depression pleaded guilty to eight counts of hiding assets from creditors and then lying about it Please see FORMER page 3A By CARL LANGLEY Britt Ljone and Carmen are representa tive of those Aiken City Council woman Karen said can make a difference in the way Americans feel about this coun try Ms Ljone and Ms Austen Smythe are not native born but Friday the two local government workers joined the millions who have become naturalized citizens of the United States Pat Fernandez deputy clerk of the US District Court adminis tered the oath that immigrants from 19 countries took Ms Ljone a graduate of the University of South Carolina had special reason for celebra tion She beat both her mother and father to the paperwork fin ish line in taking the oath of citi This is something I have been working on for four years Ms This is I have been working on for Ljone said minutes after she was made a citizen in a naturalization ceremony at the Charles E Simons Jr Federal Courthouse in Aiken She said she would have become a citizen earlier but she had to get her university degree and the government kept losing her documentation Mrs Aikens mayor pro tern was asked to speak to the group and she told the newly minted citizens that we are Americans and we are the ones who make a difference You are the government Briefing the group on Aikens selection as an city and noting that democratic gov starts at the local level Mrs recalled her husbands roots in Egypt and how free he found America to be It is a virtue to love your coun try she said during her brief remarks Dr Fred Andrea pastor of First Baptist Church gave the invoca tion and benediction and told the group it is an honor to be in your midst The pastor asked that the power the wisdom and the hand of God direct the lives of us all Presiding Judge Charles E Simons Jr said The doors of this courthouse are always open to you The judge said they in turn should love and nurture the freedoms of their new home by Please see NEW page 3A Foreign business partners sought By BENGTSON Aiken Countys future trading partners are likely to reach far beyond the state borders and Atlantic and Pacific shores if a group of business and education leaders have their way Boosters of the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce are throwing their weight behind an effort to promote international trade and exports as a productive strategy in the economic develop ment of the region with a keen eye on their home county Hopes are for the group the international trade and exports of the chambers economic development committee to open doors for businesses and industries whether doors lead to North Car olina South Korea or almost any where in between The notion of being export ready and participating in the global market is to many compa nies in this region a fairly new concept said John Lindsay a representative of the Westing house Savannah River Company who is backing the plan This is really a global econo my that were dealing with now and small businesses in South Carolina havent had to partici pate in a global economy he said Please see FOREIGN page 5A In the pink State recalling decals Associated Press COLUMBIA Those 1998 South Carolina license plate vali dation decals were supposed to be red not pink Theyre fading in the sun however so the state Motor Vehicles Division finds itself having to recall about 600000 of them Police nationwide have been told the stickers are fading so they dont pull over people for ing plates said Sue Sadik a state Pub lic Safety Department spokeswoman Motor Vehicles is part of Public Safe ty A single call will allow the state Highway Patrol and other police officials to check the divisions computer records for which tags have been updated she said The Dayton Stan dard Register Co which has pro the decals for South Caroli na since 1991 did not use fade resistant ink on this years decals she said South Carolina motorists renew their license plates yearly by placing a new sticker in the lower right corner over the previ ous years decal The stickers that expire this year were black and no problems were reported with those Sadik said The defective stickers were issued between this January and May she said A Standard Register worker mistakenly used the wrong ink company spokeswoman Beverly Reiman said Sadik said motorists and the state will not have to pay any thing for the change Standard Register has accept ed responsibility and will bear the expense of printing notifica tion postcards replacement decals postage use and installa tion of a 1800 phone line and any other associated costs Reiman said She said she did not know how much the company would have to spend Staff photo by Scott Miss Aiken County Angela Gibson shows off one of the outfits she will wear tonight Competition comes to a close tonight By LYNNE KATONAK SPARTANBURG Tonight is the final competi tion for the Miss South Carolina Pageant in Spar tanburg and one of the 42 contestants will be wear ing the crown that will allow her to go to the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City NJ I Aiken County is being represented by Angela Kay Gibson daughter of Mr and Mrs Clyde Bulfinch of Jackson and Mr and Mrs John Gibson of The Miss South Carolina pageant Friday night named the last two preliminary competition win ners Holly Michelle Brown Miss Williamston took first place in the swimsuit segment She is a junior at Lander University Windy Dianne Alice Albert Miss Columbia won the talent competition The Hampton University senior sang Happy Days Are Here Again The contestants were divided into groups and each group appeared in preliminary competition in talent evening gown and swim suit Tonight the top ten will be announced and they will appear in the three categories of competition Please see COMPETITION page 3A
