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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 1955)
MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE SEVEN Hydrogen Bomb Scientist Warns on Danger of 'Runaway' Nuclear Reactor Wednesday, August 10, 1955 r if 'full f PM , IV fy'(p I vl Si TURNS 'AMBASSADOR' Bronx shoemaker Gino Frato, who has captured the nation's fancy on the TV show, "564,000 Question," signs a contract paying "more tnan ! $10,000 a year" with the American Bilt Rite Co. to serve as I the firm's goodwill ambassador to the nation's shoe in idustry. Looking on is Morris M. Borkan (right) company sales manager. Shoemaker Stops at $32,000 in TV Quiz; Takes Daddy's Advice New Yotk (U.R) "Ebasta cosi!" With those words, a little Italian cobbler from the Bronx, Gino Prato, rang down the cur tain and retired $32,000 richer today. They mean: "That's enough." Prato, making his fourth ap pearance on. CBS-TV's "The $64,000 Question," had captured the fancy of much of the nation by wading through a series of questions in the category, op era." The gentle, graying, 55 vear-old shoemaker had pyra mided his winnings to $32,000 by doing so. Last night, Prato had the opportunity of doubling his stake by tackling another question. He decided to bow out. "My father in Italy sent me a wire," Prato explained. "It said: 'Fermati dove ti trovi. E basta cosi.' That means: Stop wherever you are. That's enough. . "Because I take rmy daddy's advice when I was a small kid, I take it now." Prato was presented with his check for $32,000 and kissed it amidst heavy applause from the studio audience. He said he would use some of the money to visit his 92-year-old father who lives in Statale di Ne, Italy, a small village near Genoa. He said he had not seen his father since he left Italy, 33 years ago. "I will also buy my father a good hearing aid," said the smiling Prato after the broad cast. "He is stone deaf." For the first time in four weeks. Prato appeared visibly relaxed. He posed with a profes sional aplomb for photographers and answered questions with a happy grin. "I didn't know right up to the broadcast what I was going to do." he said. "I could have taken another chance, but I gotta obey him, my father. He might take a shock if I go on. "I want to see him," Prato added witn a shrug. O Prato said he and his wife, Caroline, would take off for O Italy by air sometime in early September. Travel Bill Paid Prato will not have to use any of his winnings for his air fare a New York travel agency has agreed to foot the bill for Dr. Robert E. Lee v Optometrist Moved from "BIG Y" Market Building to a cDown Town Location 309 East 8th Between Bartlett & Riverside DIAL 3-5923 PLYMOUTH FIBRE RUGS . . . "Reverse It for Twice the Wear" 3'x5' $4:95 9'xl2' 21.95 6'x9' 14.50 9'xl5' ..........$30.95 8'xl0' 19.95 12'xl2' 36.50 12'xl5' 45.50 o . Also Cut-to-Order Sizes! Laurine&Dyke, Inc. L Riverside & Main "YOUR CARPET SHOP" Nothing Down 36 Months To Pay OPEN EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT Prato and his wife. Prato also was presented with another gift during the program two eighth row center season passes to the Metropolitan Opera. When he returns from his trip abroad, Prato will begin to get in harness in a new job. A Chelsea, Mass., firm which man ufactures heels and soles signed Prato to a one-year-contract this week, as its "goodwill ambass ador" for a sum "in excess of $10,000 a year." Teachers Elected By School Board; Contracts Signed Ten teachers for the Medford school system were elected at a meeting of the board of School District 49 last night. Two others resigned. The resignations were from Miss Barbara Elken and Mrs. Nellie Stephens, both of whom had 'taught English at the Med ford High school. Elected to succeed them were Mr. and Mrs. John Kovenz. Other new teachers include Bernard Averill: physical edu cation and health, junior high school: William Brew, fourth grade; Esther Crum, first grade: Josephine Culbertson, commer cial, high school; Marian For- sythe, physical education, high school: John Johnson, third grade; Harold Mayer, special education and Erma White, mu sic, art and penmanship. The board also transacted rou tine business, including the sign ing of tuition and transportation contracts with the non-high school board, and giving final approval to tuition contracts with Districts 102 and 29. which send their pupils to the Medford district. A progress report on the two new schools now nearing com pletion was heard by the board. Both will open Sept. 19. Some minor revisions were made in the budgets of the two junior high schools. Religious Revival Sweeping Chicago's Loop Chicago tU.R) Chicago's Loop is witnessing a religious revival. In the past five years, St. Pe ter's Catholic church has been built at 110 West Madison, Luth erans have dedicated a new church center at 327 South La Salle and Jews are raising funds for a new synagogue at 16 South Clark. For years the Chicago Temple at 77 West Washington, which houses the First Methodist church was the only church-owned wor ship center in the loop. J Atoms-for-Peace Conference Told Of Possibilities Geneva (U.R) The Califor nia scientist who unlocked the secret of the hydrogen bomb warned the world today of a new danger the dread "run away" nuclear reactor that could be as dangerous as the atom bomb itself. The warning was delivered in a paper from Edward Teller of the University of California, known as the "Father pfthe hydrogen bomb" and was echoed in papers by British and Soviet scientists at the Atoms-For-Peace conference here. Teller, working with Rogers McCullough of the Atomic En ergy Commission, and Mark Wills of the University of Cal ifornia, drafted one of the most dramatic papers of the confre- ence. It was read today by Mc Cullough. Split Second Disaster He warned that runaway nu clear furnaces may force the evacuation of entire cities, poison entire watersheds and turn stretches of land into for bidden areas for years. It could be a split second disaster but an industrial disaster unknown be fore to the world. The scientists said nuclear fission must be made as safe as gas or electricity for the era of atomic power is near at hand They told of an unceasing search for devices to make nu clear fission safe in the labora tories of two continents. No Fool-Proof System The paper said that "with all the inherent safeguards that can be put into a reactor, there is still no fool-proof system . there are unfortunately certain dangerous characteristics . . and this public hazard has been one of our main concerns. It was symbolic of the aims of the conference that one of the major papers on saving lives in the new age, when nuclear reactors already are on the drawing boards, should come from the man responsible for the most lethal weapon of his tory. "Perhaps," the Teller-McCul- loueh-Wills paper said, "it is im portant to emphasize the degree of public hazard that might fol low a reactor accident. A Reassuring Note "Assuming that good luck prevails and no one is killed, it may nevertheless be necessary to evacuate a large city, to ab andon a maior watershed and very probably it would be nee essary to make the reactor site itself a forbidden area for years to come." A reassuring note came from scientist J. D. Dietrich of the Argonne National laboratories in the United States who read a paper incorporating the work of 32 other scientists on experi ments in which 200 runaway re actor accidents were deliberately staged at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge. High Degree, of Safety ' These small reactors of water- cooled types appear to have reached a "high degree of in herent safety," he said. Britain's W. G. Marley and T. M. Frey of the Harwell labor atories said they did not think the safety program was "insup erable." But they urged that at omic plants be built away from heavily populated areas in such a way that only limited quanti ties of radio-activity would be released in event of an accident. Former Convict Held In Death of Parents Columbus, Ohio (U.R) Po lice held a 19-year-old ex-convict who confessed to the vicious hammer-knife slayings of his mother and stepfather, for fur ther questioning today. The ex-convict, Robert Jacob Miller; was arrested yesterday at Cambridge, O., where he had stopped at a service station for fuel and tire repairs. At the time of his arrest, he had four other youths with him whom officers identified as hitchhikers on their way back from the East coast. Officers said Miller "went to pieces" during questioning and sobbed out the events that led to last week end's murder of his stepfather and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Gomer Thomas. Miller told officers he became "violently angry," during an ar gument with his mother, Betty, 39, when she objected to one of his girl friends. He said he began striking her with his fists. When his stepfather intervened. Mil ler began hitting him, police re ported. TYPEWRITERS & ADDING MACHINES Repaired MEDFORD OFFICE EQUIPMENT COMPANY 41 S. Grape Phone 2-4100 1 - 'Safeties on Safeties' on Atomic Reactors Make Possibility of Runaways Mighty Slim Salt Lake City '.U.R) Thanks to the "safeties on safeties" built into them by their engineers, the chances of an American power generating reactor "running away" and blowing up are mighty slim. Every reactor built by the Atomic Energy Commission and shown in the Los Alamos, N.M., laboratories or tested at the sprawling proving grounds in Southeastern Idaho has scores of devices that cause it to "scram" stop its chain reaction should the fission process reach a dan gerous level. However, just to see what would happen if all the safeties should fail, the AEC's Argonne National Laboratory revealed to day that it had deliberately sac rificed a small water-boiler type reactor that was destroyed in a split-second explosion. But the explosion had a potency of only "a few pounds of TNT," com pared to the 20,000 tons equiva lent of even the old Hiroshima type A bombs. Used for Tests The reactor, called Borax I, was constructed on the Idaho desert between Idaho Falls and Arco some two years ago. It was originally used for 200 tests because 155-HQ! ffiarita BO on D op Gn-irfl's- under semi-run-away conditions. In these tests, the cadmium and boron control or "shim" rods that usually act as accelerators or brakes for atomic reactions were pulled out quickly. When they are in place, these rods absorb enough flying neu trons that they keep the reactors from turning into atomic bombs by permitting the fission pro cess to take place only at a safe rate.. When the shims were pulled or dropped out in Borax I, the nuclear reaction was so violent that water between the plates of uranium and aluminum that formed its heart began boiling violently. However, the scientists, in a Dairymen Request Milk Price Increase Portland (U.R) A group of 12 dairymen representing Grade A Milk Producers met with dis tributors yesterday and asked that a one-cent drop they took in milk prices after state milk con trol was voted out be restored. Distributors indicated ' that something might be worked out and one large distributor said producers were entitled to a raise. buy the popular 4-can pak YOU'LL LIKE THE PRICE! A ME), OF COURSE, YOU'LL LIKE THE BEER... it's I N C 9 paper prepared for presentation at the Geneva atomic conference. reported that this boiling itself quickly reduced the reactor's power. These early tests in Borax'! were terminated within 1 to 20 seconds when the control rods were reinserted in the metal tank containing the fissionable material. Finally, in July of last year, the Argonne Laboratory' techni sians, operating from a control trailer half a mile away, left the control rods out entirely. Within 1lOth of a second, the nuclear power increased to more than 10,000,000 kilowatts. A bright flash was seen. A dark grey column of water blew out of the reactor tank to a height of more than 80 feet. The superstructure of the re actor was, ruined. Fragments of the bent and twisted . fuel ele ments were thrown into the air. No Great Danger . But all fell back within 200 feet of the reactor, and scien tists found that dangerous radio active fallout was confined to a "few hundred feet." Borax I had no power genera tor on it. It was for experimental use only. Had it been a larger reactor of the type being now S I U I 5 J installed to produce electricity, tne results of a runaway acci dent would have been compar able. Such an accident would have meant that the power plant itself would probably be ruined by the heat and explosion. The area immediately around the re actor would be poisoned by radi ation to such a degree that it could not be safely entered for a few days. choice QLMM: 235 N. Bartlett H E W ASK 10 Daily's U-Drive Medford Airport Use Mail Tribune Want Ada o LEONARD'S FLOWERS Phone 2-9687 o 0 o P 0 0 j? C DOZ. ") Cash & i" Carry S. ANGELES
