They didnt cut corners, the tsunami blew away their backup systems.
They built this power plant too close to the coast and in the path of a potential Tsunami wave. Even if it cost more, it should have been built at least 20 miles inland, to make sure an earthquake and Tsunami didn’t disable the power supply and the backup generators. I know it’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, but this is an obvious blunder considering the Tsunami risk in Japan. America doesn’t have that Tsunami risk, so we can build nuke plants right next to the ocean. But this was a bad mistake to build this plant on the east coast of Japan right next to the ocean. I’ll bet that will be one of the conclusions of a commission that reviews this disaster.
I haven't seen any information on how high above sea level the generators actually were. I also haven't seen any information on how high the tsunami wave was estimated to be when it hit the plant. It would be nice to know for us Monday morning quarterbacks..