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I never used the word explosion

What? The entire reason I got on this thread to be "corrected" was this text of yours.

If you built a car engine that delivered power by causing fuel to explode

Then for another thing, your pet word for the day is on this page - please learn that it is a form of explosion instead of your personal definition.
http://www.exponent.com/explos...

Don't accuse me of poor reading comprehension just because you have written something different to what you wished in hindsight.

Have you ever taken a flourescent tube and held it under high power transmission lines? Something like this.

You mean something like this?

I have a friend who works at a large bakery. They use big microwave ovens to make cookies. One of his favorite tricks, before all glass was banned from the floor, was carry a fluorescent tube around near the ovens to scare the new guy. I guess they light up pretty brilliantly. :)

    Have you ever taken a flourescent tube and held it under high power transmission lines? Something like this.

    Depending on the current load and the height of the lines, you can get it to light up pretty close to the ground. I've done it while standing on the ground (tube at 3 to 5 feet AGL). Sometimes it required standing on the car and holding it straight up (tube at about 8 to 10 feet AGL). You'd be surprised to find out what's there, that you can't see.

Shoreham was decommisioned WAY back in 1989, the plant was shut down and hasn't operated since. Not sure how much more you want done with a site that doesnt have a working reactor or fuel.

Yes, yes it was - but NOT because of the NRC. NUMEROUS complaints were filed, and they were ignored.

- No safe evacuation plan?
No worries... we'll let LILCO make something up, that everyone in their right mind knows is impossible

- State and local officials look at the impossibility of an evacuation plan and decide they will not participate in such a farce?
Who cares? Let's just assume they'll participate in an emergency, using LILCO's farcical "evacuation" plan.

- Right next to a military munitions storage base?
Yup! But let's ignore those complaints

- Various failed subsystems?
Who cares? We'll (the NRC) just ignore those - and grant both the test license and full power license. This includes one failed backup generator (and we know how important those are now, dont we?), followed by inspections that showed NONE of them were suitable to the task due to manufacture/design defects. That was summer 1983 through mid-late 1985... now, look at these dates... the 5% power testing was ALSO granted in 1985, at the conclusion of the safety/equipment study (hence no time to swap out the equipment before approval to test was granted - huh?!?!?!). You'd think the smart thing would be to wait until repairs were completed and the backup gennies were fully retested (another two year process). Guess not.

- Reports from actual workers about horrendous work ethics, untrained employees, control system problems?
Sure were, but NRC didnt care either.

- The vast majority of Long Islanders (and the NYS govt) against it EVER being turned on? (and with valid concerns, I might add)
They didn't care in the least bit

- Numerous petitions to the NRC to never grant ANY kind of license to LILCO for Shoreham?
So what? Why would the NRC actually have to do anything based on the complaints and petitions?

- False and conflicting statements from LILCO about Shoreham?
Yet the NRC sided with them each time, regardless of both experts and inspectors siding against them (LILCO) who proved they were untrustworthy and incompetent. Here's ONE of numerous reports about problems with the plant: Diesel Generator Stress Evaluating Failures

I could go on all day...

I guess I should not make a blanket assumption about the NRC now - and the NRC of back then.

So, that begs the question, has anything changed?

The people to call when this happens are Failure Analysis Associates, an engineering consultancy that analyzes engineering failures. They started with building structural failures, and they've branched out. They call themselves "The Exponent Group" now.

One of the things they do is battery failure investigation. These are the people your class action lawyer brings in to find out what really happened. Companies with a clue use this to fix their manufacturing processes. Whether or not Apple has a clue about this, or whether they just take whatever their China supplier gives them, remains to be determined in court.

http://www.exponent.com/multimedia/

The IEEE's Spectrum magazine ran an article talking about this issue last April. The content is members-only so I cannot post a link to it :-(

Anyway, here's a link to one of the refereces cited in that article

In short, there is no evidence it has ever happened and it doesn't seem possible in theory, either.

The funny thing is they recently passed a law in Spain that forbids you to have a connected cell phone while refuelling. You must switch it off before you refuel.

So much for politicians getting the facts right before they make a law...

Your analysis of the situation in this case is incorrect... I'm not quite sure where you got your information, but I can assure you that building standards are very important when it comes to failure investigations the outcome of most civil cases is based on whether the builder took a rational approach to interpreting the standards set forth and the building met all per se requirements for the structure.

In fact, the investigation of structural failures and the subsequent litigation is big business in the US, and in most cases equity is restored. My dad is a forensic engineer and has worked for the two major firms in the industry Exponent and forensic technologies, incorporated. He recently incorporated his own company, doing the same thing, and I can assure you that there is no shortage of clientelle.

I have heard stories of insurance companies or corporations found guilty of not meeting standards writing settlement checks of hundreds of thousands of dollars each to members of class action lawsuits involving hundreds of people (tens of millions of dollars in total). Not to mention the typical forensic engineer charges in the somwhere between $250 and $700/hour for his time and several experts are generally required on each side of a case, all of this is separate from the insane legal fees.

In any case, standards are typically met because construction companies realize the potential losses that can occur if they are not.

an improoved, lighter version of the Land Warrior Program

A company called Exponent got the project after Raytheon lost it.

Evidentally, the initial solution made the soldiers look like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and, once the fell down, they couldn't get up.