[sellyme]

> An inherent safety factor built into most projects would mean that a slight reduction in steel content would not necessarily lead to disaster.

On the other hand, it can lead to disaster, which is why that safety factor exists. We're not doing that just for fun.

[cratermoon]

The space shuttle SRBs were designed with two o-rings, a primary and a secondary. When the primary kept showing signs of burn through, instead of treating that as a problem, it was said that because the secondary o-ring was not burned through, the safety factor was sufficient. But the primary was not designed to burn through. The safety factor did not account for burn through in normal operation, but risk assessments obscured that fact.