In response to Richard Katz's extremely thoughtful application of Daniel Kahneman's theories in behavioural economics to the Fukushima disaster, readers might also be interested in the following article by John Downer in the American Journal of
Sociology:

Downer, J. (2011)"737-Cabriolet": The Limits of Knowledge and the Sociology of Inevitable Failure, American Journal of Sociology, 117 (3): DOI:
10.1086/662383.

Abstract
This article looks at the fateful 1988 fuselage failure of Aloha Airlines Flight 243 to suggest and illustrate a new perspective on the sociology of technological accidents. Drawing on core insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge, it highlights, and then challenges, a fundamental principle underlying our understanding of technological risk: a realist epistemology that tacitly assumes that technological knowledge is objectively knowable and that "failures"
always connote "errors" that are, in principle, foreseeable. From here, it suggests a new conceptual tool by proposing a novel category of man-made
calamity: the "epistemic accident," grounded in a constructivist understanding of knowledge. It concludes by exploring the implications of epistemic accidents and a constructivist approach to failure, sketching their relationship to broader issues concerning technology and society, and reexamining conventional ideas about technology, accountability, and governance.

Cheers.

Peter