AP IMPACT: Revolving door connects Japanese nuke industry, sympathetic government regulators

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ap-impact-revolving-door-connects-japanese-nuke-industry-sympathetic-government-regulators/2011/05/01/AFj3o3RF_story.html

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, May 1, 9:16 AM

TOKYO — Nearly 10 years after Japan’s top utility first assured the government that its Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was safe from any tsunami, regulators were just getting around to checking out the claim. The move was too little, too late.

But even if there had been scrutiny years before the fury of an earthquake-powered wave swamped the six atomic reactors at Fukushima on March 11, it is almost certain the government wouldn’t have challenged the unrealistic analysis that Tokyo Electric Power Co. had submitted in 2001. An Associated Press review of Japan’s approach to nuclear plant safety shows how closely intertwined relationships between government regulators and industry have allowed a culture of complacency to prevail.

I hope we don't have any tsunamis here in the US of A.

Not that there's a revolving door here or anything like that.