Word: defection
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...plants using the same design, and built by the firm of Babcock & Wilcox, might be taken out of operation until the problem is thoroughly analyzed. This is the approach used by the aviation industry, which sometimes grounds all planes of a given model when a dangerous structural or mechanical defect is found in one of them. The potential human tragedy in an aircraft accident, of course, is dwarfed by the possible consequences of a nuclear catastrophe...
...nation's use of reactors to provide energy. The NRC has not suggested that the plants are unsafe. But engineers from Pennsylvania's Duquesne Light Co., which operates one of the plants, and the Boston firm of Stone and Webster, which designed all five, found a mathematical defect in the computer program used to design some of the plants' coolant pipes so that they would be strong enough to withstand a major earthquake. The firms promptly reported their discovery to the commission. Even though it recognized that the probability of earthquakes in the area is small...
...than 50 civil lawsuits charging negligence in placing the Pinto's gas tank far in the back of the car, where it is vulnerable to rear-end collision damage. In June 1978, Ford announced the recall of 1.5 million Pintos built between 1971 and 1976 to remedy this defect, which does not exist in later models. But the Indiana case is the first in which Ford-or any automaker-has been charged with a criminal offense...
...pass into our vocabulary as a synecdoche, a symbol for something larger. The victims cannot be dismissed as mere crazies: many were poor, elderly blacks, but a number were well-educated younger people from seemingly comfortable backgrounds. What united them was partly a fear of freedom, partly a defect in will that led them to surrender blindly to any powerful leader, any strong faith - things they somehow were not able to find in U.S. society and so rejected it. They did so even though the leader was a charlatan, and the faith insane...
...comparison with what some Far Eastern countries pay defectors, Uncle Sam is a piker. Early this month, when a lowly antitank gunner, Corporal Kwon Chong Hun, 20, defected to Seoul from North Korea, he was celebrated as an "antiCommunist gladiator" and given the equivalent of $20,000. Seoul also provided him with free housing and his choice of a college scholarship or free farm land. He received several job offers. An association of Seoul businessmen whose ancestors came from Kwon's home province is trying to find him a bride. Observes Kwon, understandably: "My decision to defect...