Afterthoughts on Precautions to a Reactor System

One might speculate that the mechanics may have been trying to rush the job or inattentive because they were hoping to complete their job before they missed much of the baseball game. [12] However, a person with limited mechanical instinct could easily choose the wrong bolts. I have seen several similar installations. 

It just does not intuitively seem clear that if what appears as only bracket bolts are removed, the valve stem will be ejected by pressure within the piping. The proper procedure is very clear to me now, but I did not identify the problem at first. I have heard two other reports in the late 1970s or early 1980s within Louisiana of incidents caused by improper valve actuator removal complete with ejecting of the stem that did not result in as serious situations. 

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