explains, "the idea usually is that the more grain b o u n d a r i e s you have—the more defects you put into the material—the h i g h e r is the current-carrying capacity/' Although for some applications, such as microcircuitry, single-crystal films may be a suitable form for superconducting materials, many potential applications will require polycrystalline materials. "You can't make a single crystal hundreds of miles long for use in a cable," Present says. "The next challenge is to see how you can make polycrystalline materials exhibit that kind of current density." The new materials also have problems with inherent strength and brittleness that will need to be overcome before they will be practical for many uses. D
Montedison, EniChem continue merger talks Officials at Montedison were busy seeking corrections last week to press reports that implied the big Italian chemical company was close to merging with another large firm, EniChem, the chemicals arm of the Italian-state-owned oil company Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI). A Montedison official confirmed that talks are going on. "We are talking, but we are not elaborating," he says. "It is a fake to say Montedison has announced anything." According to Albert Alonzo, securities analyst with London firm Barclays de Zoete Wedd, "The talks have been going on for some time, particularly since autumn of last year." Those talks arose following the breakdown of negotiations for Montedison to sell one of its plants to EniChem; talks broke down when the price could not be agreed upon. After that, the two began talking about a possible joint venture. But Alonzo questions whether the talks will lead to anything, at least in the near future. One reason is Montedison's climb back to profitability after years of losses. He attributes Montedison's success to, among other things, the restructuring of the Italian chemical industry in 1982, when the industry
was essentially polarized. EniChem took over commodity chemicals, M o n t e d i s o n the more specialty products. Montedison and EniChem exchanged assets, Alonzo says, "and EniChem got the duds. I don't see a great deal of enthusiasm on the part of Montedison for going through with this—it is doing quite well on its own." EniChem would be the beneficiary of any combination, he believes. Montedison, on the other hand, would want to look outside Italy to improve its international strength. One factor that could inhibit an agreement would be the Italian state involvement in EniChem. Montedison previously was partly owned by the state, but in 1981 the state's share was purchased by private individuals. Moreover, earlier this year, some 40% of Montedison— effectively, a controlling share—was acquired by Feruzzi Group, an agricultural commodities firm run by an aggressively individualistic owner. The significance of a linkup between Montedison and EniChem is important enough that, when the talks first began, they were discussed at the Italian Cabinet level. But the government would not be in a position to order the venture or impose an agreement. D
Carbide, India tighten Bhopal liability cases By the middle of next month, the tempo will be quickening in the bitter legal wrangle between Union Carbide and the government of India over liability in the Bhopal methyl isocyanate gas disaster of December 1984. Last week an Indian legal team flew into Washington, D.C., and met with its government's U.S. attorneys to review strategies to be taken over the next several weeks. The case is currently in the discovery process. Some observers believed at first that a major purpose of the visit was to discuss a settlement with Carbide. But both sides quickly quashed that idea. Both agreed that a settlement will be reached, perhaps before fall, but that the time is not yet ripe. Hopes for settlement ride on the scheduling of legal events in the Indian district court in Bhopal where the litigation is taking place. In about three weeks the Indian government will submit its brief to Judge M. W. Deo outlining why Carbide cannot escape legal blame for the disaster. Deo was appointed judge to succeed G. S. Patel, who reportedly was found to have secretly
Drickamer wins Welch Award in Chemistry Harry G. Drickamer, professor of chemical engineering, chemistry, and physics at the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign, and a dominant figure in high-pressure research, has won the 1987 Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry. The award totals $225,000 and is given annually for outstanding career contributions in chemical research. This year it recognizes especially Drickamer's discovery of pressure tuning spectroscopy at very high pressures, work that has led to major advances in the detailed understanding of molecular, atomic, and electronic properties of matter. Author of more than 350 scientific papers, Drickamer, 68, has won a number of major scientific awards. He will receive the Welch award during ceremonies in Houston next Nov. 2.
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News of the Week filed a claim for injuries as a result of the leak. Indian sources believe that Deo will decide by September whether Carbide is liable. If Carbide is found liable, the company then will have to decide to settle or move into the phase that will determine damages. The Indian a r g u m e n t will be based on a new principle that India's Supreme Court promulgated last December in an opinion concerning a sulfuric acid/sulfur trioxide leak by Shri Ram Foods & Fertilizer Industries in New Delhi a year after the Bhopal event. One person was killed and several were injured by that leak. The opinion, based partially on some English common law principles, held that the mere existence of a hazardous enterprise constitutes liability in the event of any accident damaging to human life. In other words, plaintiffs could dispense with attempts to establish any specific cause of the accident. The company's simply being there would be blame enough. The opinion further stated that the amount of compensation should be a function of the financial size of the enterprise. The bigger the company, the larger the compensation package. The opinion, which took Carbide by surprise, is being used by the Indian government to accelerate the trial process. The g o v e r n m e n t , which is representing the Bhopal victims, will argue that it is unnecessary in light of the Shri Ram opinion to slog through technical and financial data establishing managerial and technological liability. Carbide, however, will argue that the opinion was given after Bhopal and therefore cannot be made retroactive; that in any case the company had no control over its subsidiary, Union Carbide India Ltd., which operated the Bhopal plant; and that legal scholars are already questioning the validity of the Shri Ram opinion anyway. The entire basis of Carbide's defense is to accept moral but not legal blame for the Bhopal disaster and to shift the guilt to federal and local Indian government levels for laxity in enforcing various safety laws. In addition, it is underscoring the role of sabotage as the cause of 6
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the accident and has in fact produced and distributed a short videotape entitled "Employee Sabotage in Bhopal." The tape re-enacts step by step the "deliberate act" by which water was introduced in the tank containing methyl isocyanate. Introduction of the water triggered the runaway reaction. Carbide attorney Bud G. Holman continues to insist that the company put humanitarianism first in offering a $350 million settlement package early in 1986, along with earlier attempts to assist victims. The Indian government turned down the offer as inadequate. In India the government is suing for $3.1 billion in damages. The chief U.S. attorney representing the Indian government, Michael V. Ciresi, says that if the trial runs its full course, the assessed damages will be so high that Carbide will be u n a b l e to survive as a company. "Carbide," he says, "has continually miscalculated the government's resolve in this litigation. The whole sabotage issue is a red herring and does not exculpate them from any responsibility. If they think it will have any impact on the case itself, they're just dead wrong." D
Niagara's mist probed for toxic vapor Niagara Falls' rainbow-hued mists have always been an alluring feature to visitors. However, there now appears to be a dark side to the rainbow in the form of toxic chemicals believed to be present in those same mists. So scientists, as concerned as any romantic, are assaying the mists to determine whether the problem is anything to worry about. This activity was sparked by the knowledge that the Niagara River is polluted by some 200 chemicals, some of them volatile, from industries, sewage and storm drains, and landfills along the river. Because the river's most intense activity occurs at the falls, University of Toronto chemical engineer Donald MacKay and graduate student Michael McLachlan decided "to calculate how much material would evap-
orate from water at Niagara Falls," MacKay explains. Of 11 toxic organic chemicals studied, MacKay and McLachlan predict that about 60 tons of chloroform, 200 lb of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 200 lb of chlorobenzenes, and about 44 lb of the remaining eight chemicals evaporate from the falls yearly. These predictions are based on the first model developed to try to describe the fate of Niagara River chemicals. Rick A. Findlay, formerly Environment Canada's Niagara River coordinator, concedes that "the model has not been verified by actual field [air] measurements. Environment Canada plans to do these measurements during the coming year." Until these are made, the model cannot be verified. Do organics come off of water bodies? Charles M. Tenerella in the Environmental Protection Agency's Niagara Frontier program office answers yes. Has anyone measured the concentration of these organics in air? No. So how do you validate the model? Tenerella asks. The chemicals predicted to move from river water to air are troublesome. Chloroform and PCBs are animal carcinogens, and chlorobenzenes cause nerve and liver damage. A l t h o u g h MacKay says he "didn't calculate the concentrations of these chemicals in the air," he believes "these concentrations would be quite low, and that there is no health hazard." Findlay says that air measurements taken over the past several years at Niagara Falls, Ont., "have not detected elevated levels of PCBs. So this is in variance with the model's predictions." In a first-cut effort, however, Pollution Probe, a Toronto environmental group, has detected nine volatile organic chemicals in two air samples taken in the middle of Niagara Falls' plume, says researcher Kai Millyard. Though preliminary, this effort found nine of 25 volatile organic chemicals cited on EPA's priority chemicals list, Millyard explains. "What our results show is that Niagara Falls is an effective air stripper for chemicals going over the falls. It is a contributing source to toxic fallout in the immediate area," he says. D
