[time-nuts] Man killed in quartz crystal accident

Peter Gottlieb nerd at verizon.net
Tue Nov 26 10:14:13 EST 2013


So far as I know the government doesn't insure them.  Three Mile Island was a 
huge financial loss for the company that owned it, not just the billion dollars 
for the plant but the loss of revenue and the cleanup.  So there is a tremendous 
financial incentive to not have a large failure.  That said, if you live 
anywhere near such a plant you personally are assuming significant financial 
liability if there is a failure resulting in contamination.  Check your 
homeowners policy and you will see it excludes nuclear accidents and 
contamination.  So if your home is deemed contaminated, you will be prevented 
from going there and your insurance won't pay but your bank will still insist on 
the mortgage payments.  So perhaps it is more accurate to say that the 
government has arranged to have the public insure for some of the losses.

For lesser failures there is definitely a cost saving attitude in many 
corporations where the value of life is pretty small.  There is plenty of 
complaint about workplace safety regulations and pollution regulations but they 
all got their foothold because of some pretty nasty accidents in the past.

With this particular accident I don't know the details of how insurance was 
structured (if they didn't self-insure) so I can't say who had to pay for the 
loss of their facility but no matter what NDK suffered a significant loss.  And 
if they did have insurance, the new contracts (or renewals) will have all sorts 
of clauses about inspections and following recommendations.  As for the person 
killed, they should be prepared for a huge payout, if they haven't already.

Interesting though about what happened.  The coating was supposed to prevent 
iron contamination in the product but it may not have been fully effective in 
doing that.  Perhaps other coatings might yield a better product?


On 11/26/2013 3:35 AM, Tom Knox wrote:
> This quartz crystal accident is a canary in the coal mine that demonstrates how poor safety and regulations often work in the real world.  What I feel is a bigger concern is the similar risks we have with our aging Nuclear reactors. Many are over twenty-five years past their intended life.
> The problem is today they are paid for, and the government insures them, so they are very profitable. The question is do any of the safety officials and inspectors really have the authority to close them when they become inherently unsafe? I don't think so. I think they will run until one catastrophically fails. I think government oversight is far to often an illusion.
>
> Thomas Knox
>
>
>
>> Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 00:51:49 -0500
>> From: nerd at verizon.net
>> To: time-nuts at febo.com
>> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Man killed in quartz crystal accident
>>
>> I oncecancelled my purchase of a home when I found a sign nearby indicating an
>> underground high pressure gas transmission line. These days they're probably
>> removing the signs.
>>
>> Let's hope the government doesn't decide that precise timekeeping is of
>> strategic value and not permitted amongst ordinary people.
>>
>>
>> On 11/25/2013 11:49 PM, Joe Leikhim wrote:
>>> If you really want to lose sleep, think about those old rusty 24 inch gas
>>> mains running under your neighborhood like in San Bruno California. The
>>> warning signs were present there as well.
>>>
>>> Now thanks to Homeland Security you can't find accurate gas transmission maps
>>> on-line unless you are cleared. So if you are buying a house in a particular
>>> neighborhood, do some walking around looking for signs of buried facilities.
>>>
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