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Having worked for 20 years in heavy industry I can say that the risk/reward equation is always in flux. When profits are high the emphasis on safety is high. When profits are skinny (or non-existent) plant maintenance is reduced and short-cuts are taken with operating procedures - management works within a budget for a particular period and maintanence is delayed if money is not available in a particular period.
I searched for TEPCO's profit results for the last few years:
FY MARCH 2008, 2009, profits were negative.
That's not proof of anything in particular, but whether or not financial issues contributed to the current problems needs to be investigated.
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