That is true, although I was left with the impression that in many cases it was due to luck. Older weapons with poor safeguards ended up in service far longer t

That is true, although I was left with the impression that in many cases it was due to luck. Older weapons with poor safeguards ended up in service far longer than was reasonable and the addition of necessary safeguards was resisted at nearly every level. There were also many stories where a weapon was dropped during loading or caught in a fire, etc., and the general idea seemed to be that it could just have easily ended up in disaster. The story of the Damascus incident, which served as the framing story for the rest of the book, also seems relevant. In that case there were procedures to ensure safety but over time the reasons for these procedures seemed to have been forgotten or the knowledge inadequately passed on to newer team members. Old equipment (like HAZMAT suits) were allowed to get old, rendering them useless. Many people in the administration chain had weak or little knowledge of the facilities... And then there was an accident where a small mistake compounded into pretty scary incident.