Trust is hard. Being afraid is easy.

Today, I interviewed an executive at Swedish Vattenfall, about an incident they had a nuclear plant, and their analysis of it. He said all the right things, they are doing all the right things (investing more money, adding staff, easing up on the pressure on people there, etc.) and yet, they’re not going to get recognition for it.

The next time – which I hope is never – they’re in the papers is because there’s been another incident. Even last time, their security processes worked OK, there was no danger, and the incident was classified as 2 on the INES scale (that goes up to seven). The Swedish authorities gave them a warning for their “culture”.

Instead of getting recognition for the way they handled it, they get to answer to questions from the German press, about why the Swedish prime minister had himself ordered the opening of special valves to prevent a meltdown — only 18 minutes away.

Which story do you think people remember?