Critical Decision is an intelligently written, thought-provoking true story of an event that happened thirty years ago inside the world of arguably the most powerful technology known to mankind Ð splitting the atom. Mark Lemke pulls back the curtain on the complex, highly restricted Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, where the pressure to perform is intense, the risks are many, and where mistakes can have disastrous consequences. Critical Decision also examines myriad issuesÑfrom technological, cultural and corporate, to economic and psychologicalÑthat influenced the decisions made that night that led to turning off the only cooling water pumps keeping the nuclear fuel covered É