You touched on very important idea applicable not only to nuclear industry: it's good when workers at all levels have personal stake in success of the enterprise the work for- stake as in part of profit but part of responsibility as well. Unfortunately our current culture/economic system introduces disconnect in that respect. It's bad enough in non-critical endeavors and very dangerous in industries like nuclear or say medical research.

My observation is that the biggest obstacle to things going into desired direction of aligned incentives is hierarchical management system. You can't expect workers (engineers in nuclear example) to take all responsibility or even feel responsibility when they rarely have a say in budgeting, safety policy or overall strategy of corporation they work for. If the system was more democratic so to speak then I can see it happening but currently most endeavors are interested in "minimal pay, no say" policy when it comes to hiring.