Let me clarify. I wrote: After the accident, the Federal engineer who recommended this change was > fired, and the top management who refused to implement the change were > rewarded with thousands of dollars and promotions. That sort of thing > happens more often than people realize. >
Before TMI, there were nine incidents of stuck valves with Babcock & Wilcox reactors. Two of these incidents resulted in serious accidents. An NRC inspector took note of this and strongly recommended that a sensor be installed on the valve so that people in the control room would be aware that it was stuck open. The inspector filed several reports and recommendations. Top management finally told him to shut up. At TMI, the valve once again remained stuck open and the people in the control room had no means of knowing this. That was the cause of the accident, which cost billions of dollars. After the accident, the inspector was fired and the top management who ordered him to shut up were rewarded and promoted. See the book "Three Mile Island" by D. F. Ford. This sort of thing happens in the government and in private industry all the time. If cold fusion ever succeeds, I have no doubt this will happen again. People in the physics establishment who opposed cold fusion will be rewarded and those who promoted it will be ignored. No good deed goes unpunished. That is the lesson of history. By the way, another example of delayed technology is air pollution control. I describe this in the introduction to my book. This was delayed from the mid-1600s of until 1965. - Jed
