Thank you for that thoughtful response. I, too, have been appalled at the vituperation against Heard that I see in the comments on pretty much all of the YouTube feeds from the trial. (I’m not sure that is a good way to judge the majority stance of the public opinion, though.)  I get the idea that there might have…

Not an exact fit, but the first actual accident I found for this sort of concern.

There are many more dangerous features of a superconducting accelerator than whatever might happen in an earthquake. The collider is just going to stop working after an earthquake. No loose “beams” flashing around. Look up how many people die of lightning strikes. We don’t have many in the way of lightning or tornado…

Yes. There were physicists that did that sort of maneuver. I think it was rather early .... like in the 1940's. The story that I heard was of a particular physicist who then died of a radiation induced cancer.