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-editorials Food service switcl beneficial for USC Thirtv vears of ARA Sprvirps at TT.^f1 pnHoH v ^ ? ? f WK/Vy VtlUVU when the food contract was awarded to SAGA Food Services Inc. June 3. While change is not always for the better, maybe this one is. SAGA was chosen over five companies. An exhaustive selection process included a food service selection committee with a rating list, 18 pages of food regulations and an investigation into each company's backgound. After this work, improvement in USC food service should be expected. Quality food at fair prices is of paramount importance to USC students whn r?an noithor ? ~ J 'f UVAWIVA afford bad food nor high prices. According to Dr. Richard Wertz, head of Residential Life Services and chairman of the Food Service Contract Review Committee, SAGA has quality food at reasonable prices. If so, USC students will be served well. SAGA WILL have an incentive to provide quality service: the contract is reviewed every year. If USC is not satisfied with SAGA's service, 11 * -L ___ . . uie cuiiu aci can De lerminatea witn 6U to 90 days notice. Serving a campus of USC's size is difficult, and it will be impossible for SAGA to please everyone or operate without complaints. However, USC students have a right to expect good service for their money. If the selection committee description of SAGA is accurate, USC students will get the service they deserve. Write e letter to the Gamecock Disagree with an editorial or have a view you'd like to express? Write a letter to the Gamecock. The Gamecock provides an excellent forum for readers to express opinions on topics. The Gamecock also offers the opportunity for readers to write guest columns limited to one tonic. Both letters and columns must be typewritten on a 65-space-line and triple spaced. Letters should not be more than 300 words and columns should not exceed four typed pages. Editor-in-Chief Richard Meyers Copy Desk Chief News Editor Entertainment Editor David Dewitt Forrest Brown Sally McGill Editorial Page (Editor Photo Editor Advertising Manager Chris Handal Capers Hammond Linda S. Haines Business Manager General Manager Production Manager ! Jean Hatchell Jerry Brewer MarkMcEwan Adviser ! Mark Ethridge, Jr. Newsroom 777-7181 Advertising 777-4249 Business Office 777-3888 Production 777-2833 Sole reproduction rights granted to the Associated Press. All other material contained herein may not be reproduced without the permission of the editor. Opinions expressed in the Gamecock are those, if signed, of the writer and, if unsigned, of the editor. The Gamecock welcomes letters and columns. All letters and columns must he typewritten, triple-spaced on a 6Sspaceline. Letters should be no longer than 300 words and columns should be limited to one newsworthy subject no longer than four typed pages. Letters and columns MOST be signed with the writer's correct name, telephone number, mailing ftiifi rfluo nlrt qu o tn nrt i n u nr fnmilt \j nnQitinn nnrl mm'nr nm unacceptable, but the writer's name may be withheld on letter, upon request, if the circumstances warrant it. We reserve the right to edit columns and letters for space and style, and we reserve the right to reject any column for any reason Address letturs and columns to: Editorial Page Editor, Gamecock, Drawer A. USC, Columbia, SC. 2920H. The "Gamecock" is a licensed student organization of the University of South Carolina and receives funding from student activity fees. Il (HiL?X, I WISH you 1 5ToP REFERfUMG- T FALKLAND I5LAW? as TH? "THIRD Wof) TWE^e >tRE OTHER. WORLD COOWTRIE5 Wo J Vou |(WO U).. ?RWER WStVMLS j WILL BE ft PWLT ^t06f?^_^ fctT dVCWlL 06F?^5E? ^ /2f *j3w Nuclear povu as nation's e A conservative estimate is that our nation's capacity for generating electricity must be doubled by the year 2000. This amounts to a 3 percent average annual growth rate, significantly smaller than the recent past but greater than the expected rate of population increase. There are two major sources for generating this additional electricity. They are burning coal and the fission guest editorial of uranium nuclei. Oil and natural gas are in short supply, solar energy is too diffuse, nuclear fusion has a long way to go before it becomes practical and 1 the quantities of hydro power and geothermal energy are limited. Coal and nuclear power are already employed on a large scale and plans for further expansion have been prepared. If we are willing to accept the enviornmental costs, there is no doubt that we could meet all our demands for more electricity over the next 25 years with either of these two sources. ONE BASIS for comparison is to consider the fuel required each year for the generation ? continuously ? of one kilowatt of electric power equivalent to 10 100-watt light bulbs burning 24 hours a day. This is each person's share of the total electric power generated in this country. (A 1000-megawatt electric power plant produces enough electricity for one million people.) If the electricity is produced by a nuclear plant, a person's share of nilHpar fnpl v#?nr i? nnn M-tfram ? j "? e>*""' pellet enriched to 3 percent uranium235 (about four times the seven-tenths of a percent contained in natural uranium). This could be in the form of a small cylindrical pellet one half inch UJOtjLb A 0 THE f1 CKISiS ( Lt> VA*" I r?!R?> / Arr UlAX? ii i r-vniij i _ H PR&S. \ \ er expansion inergy use im in diameter and two inches long. If the fuel is reprocessed, a teaspoon of high-level radioactive waste would be produced each year. Over one person's lifetime his or her contribution of radioactive waste would fill a teacup. THIS SHOULD be compared to the three tons of coal which must be mined, transported and burned to produce the same amount of electricity. At least one half ton of ash must be disposed of. About 100 pounds r- Qn of sulfur and nitrogen oxides enter the atmosphere to return as acid rain. Finally, for each person's one kilowatt of electric power produced, mnrp than 10 fnnc nf narhnn are released. This contributes to the greenhouse effect, which is expected to result in an increase in the global average temperature. Scientists believe that in a 50-year period this may have serious effects, such as changing the location of climatic zones and increasing the level of the oceans. Currently very few nuclear power TPflftor? arp h*?inc? nrHoroH in United States. The electric utility industry is confronted with financial \ The BUTTON// the itmon... botta push IT... yp DIRTY COMMIES/ WE CAW Su?.ViV?/ THE BOTTOW... / Y v naorlorl llliUIIUU ureases uncertainties that result from licensing and construction delays, and lack of assurances of nuclear fuel supplies. The industry must also deal with the public perception that nuclear power is not safe. Each year several hundred persons are killed in mining accidents and in the transportation of coal. BY CONTRAST nuclear power is the safest form of energy generation. In more than 50 years of reactor service in the United States there never has been a death or serious injury to plant employees or to the public caused by a commercial reactor accident or radiation exposure. If we are to lessen our dependence on imported oil during the remainder oAhis century, we must intensify our conservation efforts and turn for a greater fraction of our energy needs to domestic sources, coal and nuclear power. in a world in which oil is becoming a scarce commodity, we should remember a warning from West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt: "I will point to the great danger that if nuclear energy is not developed fast enough, wars may be possible for the single reason of competition for oil and natural gas." GENERATING CAPACITY now on order or being built is expected to fill our needs through the end of the 1980s. But orders for new plants to expand capacity in the 1990s must be made soon. If we are prudent, more than one half of these will be nuclear. The author is Dr. Oswald F. Schuette, a physics professor in USC's Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Schuette holds a B S. from Georgetown University and a doctorate from Yale University.