It must also be assumed that every deficiency has a root cause in management. Said another way, any deficiency that is not a result of mismanagement is probably not a deficiency. Then they become deficiencies because managers failed to anticipate the obvious. Lists are long because root causes are not recognized, accepted, and dealt with. Management deficiencies are particularly difficult to root out because management is accustomed to viewing itself as being without fault or is simply not able to deal with its faults properly.
Few managers volunteer to be replaced, especially the bad managers.
When plants are really under the gun, the first step in recovering is often to replace all the managers with more competent managers, those who understand the technology and the required culture. Again, we get to the point of needing the right kind of people in charge of these nuclear plants. There are not enough of them around, and the industry is not particularly focused on how to come up with more of them. Now is the time to focus on such fundamentals if ever there was such a time. Just like every other consulting company, we have developed an amazingly long list of details that need to be addressed at every nuclear plant.