The first episode of The Simpsons didn't air until 12/17/89. A quick look
shows the last increase in the number of operating reactors happened between
before 1990. I think there was some bad info out there before The Simpsons.
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So it must of been Palo Verde instead of San Onofre. Like I said, I
don't watch TV. But the same message applies: the bulk of American
'intelligence' regarding nuclear power is based on a cartoon.

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Another point folks fail to appreciate is that civilian tea-kettles
are operated 'way down the curve compared to Navy reactors. Plus,
being shore-based they are hardened to an extent that's difficult to
understand. Up on the turbine deck of SONGS-2 Japanese and Korean
engineers would actually giggle and take pictures of each other
standing beside a 10x10 I-beam stanchion supporting a 1" high-pressure
instrument line, which is what it takes to guarantee Richter 9
survivability. (As a point of interest, the Japanese have recently
learned what happens when they fail to build to worse-case standards.)

-R.S.Hoover