Names
Appointments
Michael I. Brady, Democrat, as state senator to fill the llth District, Chicago, seat vacated when former Sen. Esther Saperstein resigned to devote full time to the Chicago aldermanic seat she was elected to in April. Brady, 36, was selected April 29 by a panel of ward committeemen from his district. (Their first choice. State Rep. Arthur Herman (D., Chicago) declined the appointment.) A real estate consultant the last seven years, Brady was officially seated in the Senate April 30 and will serve on the committees of finance, education, pensions, and public health — to which Saperstein was assigned.

Edmund E. Kornowicz, Democrat, as state representative from the 25th District in Chicago, succeeding Leroy W. Lemke (D., Chicago), who became a state senator. Kornowicz, age 60, took his seat May 9. He was selected by the 25th District's senatorial committee by a vote of 10-to-O. For the past Jwo and one half years he has been superintendent of the division of safety inspection for the state Department of Labor. Representative Kornowicz has been assigned to the House Judiciary I Committee and the Banks and Savings & Loans Committee.

Donald A. Johnson of Riverton, as director of the Illinois Department of Labor, by Gov, Dan Walker to succeed Kenneth W. Holland who was reassigned by the governor to the directorship of the Department of Aging. Johnson was assistant director under Holland and served as acting director since Holland's reassignment.

Renee Hansen of Olympia Fields, as a member of the Judicial Inquiry Board, by Gov. Walker to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Anne Wilier after her election as state representative (D., Hillsdale). Mrs. Hansen is corrections chairman for the League of Women Voters of Cook County and a director of the Chicago Crime Commission.

Irvin G. Goodman, Chicago environmental attorney, to the Pollution Control Board by Gov. Walker to succeed Sidney Marder, who resigned to become director of the Illinois Energy Development Program.

Henry Caldwell, as first assistant attorney general in charge of the Springfield office.

Appointed by Attorney General William J. Caldwell was with the attorney General's office from February 1969 until 1973 when he was appointed to the court in Lake County. He was defeated in the November election.

Gerald Gidwitz of Highland Park, as special assistant to the governor for international trade, by the governor. Founder of Helene Curtis Industries, Inc., Gidwitz will work directly with the governor and the Department of Business and Economic Development to help expand foreign markets for Illinois products.

Howard Fricke, to two positions by the governor: as state coordinator for the National Indo-China Emergency Relief Committee and as the new chairman of the Illinois Bicentennial Commission succeeding Andrew McNally, III, who will remain as a member of the commission. Fricke is a former director of the Illinois Department of Business and Economic Development and now senior vice president of Horace Mann Companies, Inc.

Thomas C. Fuller, Evanston, as the state's affirmative action director, by the governor. Fuller is former director of community relations for the American Hospital Association. He replaces Rose Geter, who was appointed by Mary Lee Leahy, director of the Department of Children and Family Services to direct the affirmative action programs for DCFS and child care agencies contracting with the department.

Alien N. Koplin, M.D., as associate director of the Office of Health Services and Local Health Administration of the Department of Public Health, by the department director, Dr. Joyce Lashof. Dr. Koplin has been deputy executive medical officer of the United Mine Workers of America.

Former state treasurer, Charles W. Woodford, as administrative vice president and head of the trust department, American National Bank & Trust Co. of Chicago (4/11/75). Woodford served as assistant state treasurer under Adiai E. Stevenson, HI, 1967-71, and was appointed state treasurer in 1971 when Stevenson resigned to become U.S. senator. Woodford had been vice president and treasurer of Horace Mann Educators Corp., Springfield, prior to the Chicago appointment.

Deaths
Don Irving of Chambersburg, chairman of the Pike County Democratic Central Committee for 24 years; on April 24 at a Pitsfield nursing home following a long illness.

Letters from Readers
Dear Editor:
I wish to comment on the article, "Hazards of Plutonium, Lethal By-Product of Nuclear Power," published in the February 1975 Illinois Issues.

I take strong issue with the statement, "The processes involved in the chemical separation of plutonium from the nuclear fuel residue and the subsequent fabrication of a crude plutonium bomb are by no means simple, but mastering the techniques is not beyond the capabilities of an intelligent and determined individual." As you may know, the General Electric Company has constructed a plant near Morris, Illinois, at a cost of more than 50 million dollars to carry out the first of "these processes." I am convinced that their people are not only "intelligent and determined," but also have available to them the resources of that large company and of the nuclear industry. Even with these resources, they have been unable to make this plant operational. I believe that the above quoted statement is untrue and irresponsible. More specifically, I believe it is "beyond the capabilities of an intelligent and determined individual."

I do not mean to imply that handling and shipping of plutonium does not warrant detailed attention or that safeguards are not required, because they are. The thrust of the article centered on nuclear power stations in Illinois. The safeguards program will be misplaced if it responds to the distorted implications in the article — for example, the implication that "bomb grade material" is being shipped from nuclear power plants but the Federal government no longer supervises such shipments. These shipments do not contain "bomb grade" material and the shipments conform to both AEC and DOT regulations.

Sincerely yours,
L. J. Koch
Manager of Nuclear Projects
Illinois Power Company

The $64 million fuel reprocessing plant at Morris, Illinois, was to have been a marked improvement over other plutonium separation plants because of a new process it was to have employed, /is failure was due to design errors in the plant, not because separation is beyond the capabilities of General Electric. Radiation hazard to health is very likely a sufficient deterrent to terrorists in this regard, but there is more than adequate evidence that the fabrication of a crude bomb from plutonium oxide is possible.

Regarding safeguards, reports indicate that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the regulatory successor to the Atomic Energy Commission, is advocating a ban on the use of plutonium as a supplement to uranium fuel until adequate safeguards are developed. — John W. Ahlen, Charles R. Burns

July 1975/Illinois Issues/221


|Home| |Back to Periodicals Available||Table of Contents| |Back to Illinois Issues 1975| |Search IPO|