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A-2 yei, The Arizona Republic 2-year shutdown likely at A-plant for reactor operators and increased emphasis on safety regulations. The chairman disclosed that some NRC commissioners and senior staff personnel in Washington had proposed evacuation of those within two to five miles of Three Mile Island between March 30 and April 1. But he said NRC staff members at the plant were "considerably more optimistic" than those at headquarters, so he did not recommend evacuation to Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburgh. He said plant employees would be exposed to radiation "substantially above the overall doses to the public." Statistically, he said, the amount of radiation within 50 miles of the plant was enough to cause an a 50 percent.

Wilcox, because "operator errors" were the key to the March 28 accident. However, three other commissioners said they were not yet convinced the cause was human rather than reactor design. Hendrie said owners of other plants designed by the firm were being told to make changes in operating procedures, including more training I. III. Jin I I I U' -SI II pi i r.

is i A 7 AmiMIU Pkm A-plant water gauges chance of one additional cancer death among every 10,000 persons over a 30-year period. Asked by Sen. Jennings Randolph, about reports Metropolitan Edison Co. officials at one point threatened to pull their employees out of the plant, Hendrie said he did not know whether that was true. In such a case, he said, the NRC has the power to order the licensee to stay.

However, he said the NRC would not be able to prevent any individual employee walking off the job. "We don't have police powers," he said. Radioactive gas escapes in France PARIS (AP) A small amount of radioactive gas escaped inside the housing of a research reactor at the Center for Nuclear Studies In Grenoble on Tuesday. Officials said no one in the building was exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. The French Atomic Energy Commission said the radioactive gas escaped after a strong increase of activity in the reactor, probably caused by a rupture around a "pencil" of enriched uranium oxide.

United Press International WASHINGTON Chairman Joseph Hen-drie of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday it will be at least two years before the crippled Three Mile -Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, can be back in operation. The cleanup, Hendrie said, will cost "tens of millions" of dollars. "I would think it would be four to five days anyway, and it could be longer," before the reactor can be cooled down, he told the Senate nuclear regulation subcommittee. The chairman said the time when workers can enter the unit is "some months away." Hendrie agreed with subcommittee Chairman Gary Hart, that states with nuclear power plants should be pushed into developing evacuation plans. Hart said every state should "at least have an emergency evacuation plan in place." Hendrie said he would contact governors by telephone and by letter to urge speedy action on such plans.

Hendrie said he believed there was no need to shut down other plants designed by the same firm, Babcock and Plant neighbors rated 'norma? in radiation test Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. Scores of people who live in homes or farms near the contaminated Three Mile Island nuclear plant received free radiation tests Tuesday and were told the computer con- firmed the levels in their bodies are normal. On the island, meanwhile, technicians were keep- ing up their routine but cautious chore of draining I gas pockets from a primary cooling system to prepare the crippled reactor core for its eventual cold shutdown, still several days away. As the scanner tests began shortly before -biologist R.L. Gotchy of the Nuclear Regulatory said, "We don't expect to see any significant levels at all." By midafternoon, when -about a dozen persons had been tested, he said there had been no abnormal readings.

But one woman was jittery. "I really don't like having our kids here until we're sure they've completely cleaned out (the plant)," said Carmella Swartz. Her 3-year-old son was in a red wagon carrying a sign that read: "Because we're alive, it doesn't mean we survived TMI." For many others, things were nearing normal. Evacuees were returning home, filing insurance claims for losses, and sending children back to schools that were open for the first time in 12 days. The NRC said radiation around the plant was still dropping toward the level of natural background radiation for Harrisburg.

And officials said that even though levels remained higher than normal for the area, they posed no danger and did not exceed what is considered normal in some other areas, such as Denver. At the plant, five workers took a sample of the coolant, hoping to get an idea of how badly the uranium core is damaged. Last week, a worker received an overdose of radiation when he took such a sample. But this time there was no leak, the NRC said. Within the containment building, an NRC official said, technicians were still unable to figure out exactly what was happening to the high levels of radiation that contaminated the building just after the accident.

On Tuesday, and over the previous several days, they had been getting extremely high radiation room apparently led operators to shut off an emergency reactor-cooling system prematurely in the early stages of the March 28 accident. He said the gauge had indicated a higher level of water in the reactor than existed. If the emergency cooling system had not been turned off, Hendrie said, the reactor might have been brought under control at that time. Instead, the reactor continued to heat up, damaging the nuclear core and posing the possibility of a core meltdown that would have released large amounts of radiation into the central Pennsylvania countryside. Hendrie said the notice sent to operators of the 42 plants stressed that "in situations where levels might be misleading, it is very important that other instruments be checked very carefully." Sen.

Gary Hart, nuclear subcommittee chairman, suggested that the commission take stronger steps to make sure that the faulty gauges are replaced. Continued from Page A-l In another development, nuclear-safety legislation endorsed by consumer advocate Ralph Nader was introduced in the House by Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, Ms. Holtzman and Nader said the bill would require full-time federal inspectors at all nuclear plants, more radiation monitors around plant sites, more frequent safety inspections and dissemination of "emergency-preparedness information" to all households within 50 miles of a nuclear plant. Hendrie joined the other four commission members in asserting that steps must be taken to guarantee that another accident similar to Three Mile Island cannot happen.

"We cannot have an acceptable nuclear power program in this country if there is any appreciable risk of events of the Three Mile Island kind occurring at other nuclear power plants," he testified. Hendrie said a misleading reading on a water-level gauge in the control Technician Bill Gibson scans Chris Becker with a computerized radiation detector. thank people for getting tested. Some of those waiting asked for his autograph. In Harrisburg, meanwhile, insurance officials said they have paid out $815,286 to cover living expenses for those who were advised to leave the area.

'lex. Pull. Stretch. The cat-sleek tank ever looked barer. GETTING PHYSICAL readings 50,000 rems, or nearly twice the al-i ready lethal 30,000 rems recorded just after the accident But Jim Hanchett, an NRC spokesman, said, the readings might well be inaccurate.

He said technicians "think either that the instrument has failed or that there is a hot particle sitting on top of it" The computerized radiation tests, coordinated by the NRC and administered by a California firm, involve a body scan given to those who live within 1 the plant's five-mile radius. Officials said several hundred persons had signed up for scans through Friday. The process takes about eight minutes. Subjects remove their shoes and jewelry before entering a stainless steel box. A scanner, equipped with a sodium crystal to receive and register radiation, moves back and forth near their bodies while a computer provides readings on radiation levels.

1 The mobile unit is linked by telephone lines to a computer at the Helgeson Nuclear Services near San Francisco, the firm that makes the scanners. Lew Helgeson, its owner, was pleased with the results on dairy farmer Chris Becker. 2 "It looks great. It's what I'd expect from your muscular build. The preliminary reading was just 2 an ordinary body potassium background," Helgeson said.

Becker was pleased, too. "We came to let the public know we are safe and that our milk that's leaving the farm is safe, fend that everything's all right again," he said. Harold Denton, the NRC's chief of operations and a heroic figure to many residents, stopped by to Dare. Hit the beach in the minimal tank. Swim.

v- A Play. Exercise. With hardly a thing between fillU you and the sun. They're practically backless. I 1 Aji jl High on the thigh.

Hot. New. To the limits of yyy I oj bare. It's hard to wear less and be legal! Jf Two knockout ways to peel for the 1 I i surcDanskin Miliiskin tanks. 1 Lithe, leggy hits of color hitched up at the 1 thighs, with bikini rings.

In Antron 19 I nylonLyaa spandex. sizes S-M-L Left AiX--, the bikini-bottomed tank to wear tied in back or bandeau style, $17. Right: the side- baring criss-cross tank with ultra high-cut XjifwA XVX fi- The Arizona Republic (USR 030201 Published every morning by Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. 120 E. Van Bwon, P.O.

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