Loose Bolts at the San Onofre Reactor

Imagine, if you will, amid the spate of summer movie sequels, (“Ghostbusters” II, “Indiana Jones” III, “Rambo” XXV), a new and timely movie, Three Mile Island II, the San Onofre Connection. Doesn’t it seem odd that we have a nuclear reactor capable of untold destruction being fired up with known defects?

It seems that Edison officials in charge of the plant deem any accident relating to the loose bolts holding an important thermal shield “highly unlikely.” Three out of 30 bolts partly unscrewed reads like 10% in my book, a significant amount, especially when coupled with the fact that there are more which are known to be in a degenerative condition. Now add to this the fact that they are not going to even start to remedy this for 1 full year.

According to The Times article (May 16), Gene Morgan, station manager at San Onofre, compared this to the loss of a single screw in the hinge of a door that continues to work properly for a year. I have two points to nit-pick: There is substantially more at stake here than a few flies in Ma’s apple pie, and work will not even start for 1 year, at which time several more screws may have fallen, not only from the aforementioned hinge but also from Morgan’s noggin.

We’re not playing with Lincoln Logs anymore, folks. This reads like something that could sell a lot of movie rights. I wonder if Stephen King needs a new plot for one of his books?

LAUREL CONNER

Laguna Beach

DR, Bolt