All industrial disasters, like Chernobyl, Bhopal, Exxon Valdez, Deepwater Horizon and Fukushima, share three fundamental underlying causes: industry negligence, failed government oversight and public complacency. Industry continually seeks to minimize costs, accepting the risk of low-probability, high-consequence failures. Government is co-opted by industry, the line between the two blurs and vigilance declines. And the public is too distracted with everyday life to play an effective oversight role in technically complex issues.
