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Northwest Arkansas Timas, Wad., Oct. 8, 1910 • 11PAVITTIVIUI, AMAMAfPicking Up DebrisAbout 100 Air Force enlisted men got down on their knees Tuesday to pick up tiny bits of debrisscattered by the Sept. 19 explosion at the Titan II missile silo near Damascus. (AP Laserphoto)Air Force Sees No TieBetweenIllnessLITTLE ROCK. Ark lt;AP -While residents of the area around the Titan II missile silo that exploded Sept 19 continued to complain of health problems, the Air Force maintained that no connection had been made between the illnesses and the . blast,About 30 of the 179 residents of the Guy community said they ; became ill when breathing sour smeil.ng fumes after the blast Guy is about six miles southeast of the town of Damascus, which is near the devastated siloCspt. Ken Garrett, public at fairs officer at Little Rock Air Force Base said Tuesday that the Air F«rce has no explanation for why the people near the missile explosion became ill.“We have no reason to believe that it if related to the missile complex,' Garrett saidWe are continuing with our water sampling, air sampling, wc have no*. found a correlation between the people who say they're sick and the events that Happened at the (missile) com plex Oarrettsatel.Dr Robert Young, the direc tor of the state Health Department, says his preliminary study of the cause of the illnesses is inconclusive Young has said that interviews with 72 residents of Guy showed 21 had symptoms similar to those caused by exposure to nitrous oxidesThe Air Force issued a state ment Monday saying military officials interpreted Youngs findings as meaning that he found no correlation' between the complaints of illness and svrnptoms of breathing nitrogen tetroxidefume*Young has invited the OuterWorkers Full ( -loses• %Down Nuclear PluntRUSSELLVILLE. Ark lt;AP - A fall by a maintenance worker led to a five-hour shutdown of Unit 1 of Arkansas nu clear pofcer plant on Tuesday Officials said the worker Slipped on oil and grabbed the manual trip lever while falling Jim O Hanlon, general man ager of Arkansas Power Light Co s Nuclear One plant near Russellville, said the unit automatically went off line when the lever was grabbed about 8 30 a m He said officials took several hours to check the unit before reactivating it.‘‘There were two maintenance men cleaning up oil around the main feed pump, and one of them slipped,' O'Hanlon said. ‘He reached out to grab something, and he grabbed themanual trip lever “It scared the dickens out of him He s a real responsible individual and has worked for the company many, many years. He felt worse about this than anyone.’’The briel shutdown was reported to the state Office of Emergency Services and to the lederal Nuclear Regulatory CommissionO’Hanlon said the mainte-nance men were around the main feed pump because there had been an excess ai oil for several days He said APL had lanned to shutdown the line er in the week to correct theoil problem.•^e considered the oil asafety problem, and it obviouslyturned out (to be one,’ he said.r,for Disease Control at Atlanta to send a research team to Arkansas and make a more de tailed study of the illnessesYoung said earler that Air Force officials had admitted to him in a meeting in Washington last week that they did not know how far toxic fumes from the explosion had spread. The Air Force had said that any toxic fumes released in the missile leak had burned off in the silo, and that there was no con tamination of the atmosphere“We believe that a majority of toxic materials were burned off in the silo, Garrett said Whether any escaped is un known, he saidAir Force spokeswoman Capt Virginia Pribyla said at Washington on Tuesday that Air Force officials discussed with Young in the meeting last week the things that might have happened as a result of the explosion.“He's discussing some of the things that couil have occurred,'' she said “We simply can’t discuss — because we don't know — what did happen until the investigation is completed While the debate about the illnesses continued, Air Force personnel got to work on the cleanup of the area around the siloTuesday, about 100 Air Force personnel, on their hands and knees, combed the grass in the pastures that surround the silo for the tiny bits of debris that were blown out of the silo in the blast.The small pieces of metal, asphalt and concrete were collected in wheelbarrows and hauled away.Air Force officials said heavy equipment would be required to remove some of the larger hunks erf debrisNegotiations are under waybetween the Air Force and Energy Systems Co. Inc. to transport wastes from the devastated missile silo to El Dorado for incineration An official with the state Pol lution Control and Ecology De partment said Tuesday that the Air Force was to submit a plan to transport the material. The plan must be approved by the department before any wastes are transported,ENSCO president Melvyn Bell said Tuesday that none of the highly volatile nitrogen tet-roxide would be tnvolvcxi in any shipments.
Newspaper Details
Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times
Fayetteville, Arkansas, US
Wed, Oct 08, 1980
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Arkansas S.
AR, USA 14 Feb 2020
Other Publications Near Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville Democrat
Fayetteville Daily
Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times
Northwest Arkansas Times
Fayetteville Daily Democrat
