• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.1090-1094
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• 2017

The determinants of the public's nuclear power acceptance have received considerable attention as decisive factors regarding nuclear power policy. However, the contingency of the relative importance of different determinants has been less explored. Building on the literature of psychological distance between the individual and the object, the present study demonstrates that the relative effects of different types of perceived risks regarding nuclear power generation differ across acceptance targets. Using a sample of Korea, our results show that, regarding national acceptance of nuclear power generation, perceived risk from nuclear power plants exerts a stronger negative effect than that from radioactive waste management; however, the latter exerts a stronger negative effect than the former on local acceptance of a nuclear power plant. This finding provides implications for efficient public communication strategy to raise nuclear power acceptance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권3호
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• pp.908-918
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• 2023

The Saudi National Atomic Energy project aims to adopt peaceful nuclear technologies and be part of the country's energy mix. As emerging nuclear energy, it is essential to understand public concerns and acceptability of nuclear energy, as well as the factors influencing acceptance to develop nuclear energy policy and implement nuclear energy programs. The purpose of this study is to analyze the public attitudes and acceptance of nuclear energy among Saudi Arabian citizens by utilizing protection motivation theory and theory of planned behavior. A total of 1,404 participants answered a questionnaire which was distribute by convenience sampling approach. A Structural Equation Modeling framework was constructed and analyzed to understand public behavior toward building the country's first Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Before analyzing the data, the model was validated. The research concluded that the benefits of nuclear power plants were essential in determining people's acceptance of NPPs. Surprisingly, the effect of the perceived benefits was found higher than the effect of the perceived risks to the acceptance. Furthermore, the public's participation in this study revealed that the NPPs location has a significant impact on their acceptance. Based on the finding, several policy implementations were suggested. Finally, the study's model results would benefit scholars, government agencies, and the business sector in Saudi Arabia and worldwide.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권4호
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• pp.850-854
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• 2017

Public acceptance of nuclear power is important for the government, the major stakeholder of the industry, because consensus is required to drive actions. It is therefore no coincidence that the governments of nations operating nuclear reactors are endeavoring to enhance public acceptance of nuclear power, as better acceptance allows stable power generation and peaceful processing of nuclear wastes produced from nuclear reactors. Past research, however, has been limited to epistemological measurements using methods such as the Likert scale. In this research, we propose big data analysis as an attractive alternative and attempt to identify the attitudes of the public on nuclear power. Specifically, we used common big data analyses to analyze consumer opinions via SNS (Social Networking Services), using keyword analysis and opinion analysis. The keyword analysis identified the attitudes of the public toward nuclear power. The public felt positive toward nuclear power when Korea successfully exported nuclear reactors to the United Arab Emirates. With the Fukushima accident in 2011 and certain supplier scandals in 2012, however, the image of nuclear power was degraded and the negative image continues. It is recommended that the government focus on developing useful businesses and use cases of nuclear power in order to improve public acceptance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권5호
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• pp.767-772
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• 2018

Public acceptance is a major issue that will determine the future of nuclear energy. In this article, we review relevant studies and identify several common patterns of nuclear public acceptance. Based on these patterns and four categories of factors, we propose hypotheses on the impact of different socioeconomic factors on the public opinion of nuclear energy. These factors were demographic and social influences, politico-economic, energy conditions, and nuclear accidents and natural risks. We tested these hypotheses using a data set including survey results on public opinion of nuclear energy in 59 countries from 1987 to 2014. Results of the regression analysis generally verified the proposed hypotheses, especially regarding the positive impact of education or geological suitability and the negative effect of improved living standards and democracy on nuclear acceptance. We propose policy recommendations, including a better focus on education and communication and a thorough consideration of the social and geological conditions a country needs to make before deciding to go nuclear. Potential weaknesses of this study are also discussed, including the possible causal relation between independent variables and the binary nature of the dependent variable.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권3호
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• pp.904-907
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• 2019

Nuclear energy remains one of the world's major energy sources, making up over 10% of global electricity generation in 2017. Public acceptance of nuclear energy is essential for its adoption. From a practical perspective, it is beneficial to have a simple indicator that can predict the actual adoption of nuclear energy. Based on practical experience, the authors suggest tolerance and self-sufficiency as potential indicators that may predict the adoption of nuclear energy. By evaluating the cross-sectional data of 18 countries in 2013, this research assesses the actual impact of tolerance and self-sufficiency on public acceptance in order to identify the validity of the two variables. The results indicate that the two variables are statistically significant, while public acceptance is insignificant in explaining national adoption of nuclear energy. This may be because tolerance reflects national willingness to accept potential risk, while self-sufficiency explains a government's likelihood of developing non-carbon energy sources.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.494-503
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• 2018

As public acceptance of nuclear energy in Korea worsens due to the Fukushima accident and the earthquakes that occurred in the Gyeongju area near the Wolsong nuclear power plant (NPP), estimating the effects of earthquakes has become more essential for the nuclear industry. Currently, most countermeasures against earthquakes are limited to large-scale disasters. Minor-scale earthquakes used to be ignored. Even though people do not feel the shaking due to minor earthquakes and minor earthquakes incur little damage to NPPs, they can change the environmental conditions, for instance, underground water level and the conductivity of the groundwater. This study conducted a questionnaire survey of residents living in the vicinity of an NPP to determine their perception and acceptance of plant safety against minor earthquakes. The results show that the residents feel earthquakes at levels that can be felt by people, but incur little damage to NPPs, as minor earthquakes (magnitude of 2.0-3.9) and set this level as a standard for countermeasures. Even if a minor earthquake has little impact on the safety of an NPP, there is still a possibility that public opinion will get worse. This study provides analysis results about problems of earthquake measures of Korean NPPs and specific things that can bring about an effect of deterioration of public acceptance. Based on these data, this article suggests that active management of minor earthquakes is necessary for the sustainability of nuclear energy.

• 한국콘텐츠학회논문지
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.238-248
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• 2012

본 연구는 경주의 원전주변 지역주민들을 대상으로 원전에 대한 위험지각이 위험태도와 위험수용에 미치는 영향을 살펴보았으며, 추가적으로 정부의 원전관련 정책에 대한 불신과 원전에 대한 지각된 이익이 위험수용에 어떤 영향을 미치는지를 규명하였다. 주요 결과를 제시하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 원전주변 지역 주민들의 원전에 대한 위험지각은 위험태도에 유의한 정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 원전주변 지역주민들의 원전에 대한 위험태도는 위험수용에 유의한 부적 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 원전주변 지역주민들의 원전 관련 정부정책에 대한 불신은 위험수용에 유의한 부적 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 넷째, 원전주변 지역주민들의 원전에 대한 지각된 이익은 위험수용에 유의한 정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권6호
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• pp.2062-2066
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• 2022

Nuclear energy sources are indispensable in cost effectively achieving carbon neutral economy, where public opinion is critical to adoption as the consequences of nuclear accident can be catastrophic. In this context, discussion on spent nuclear fuel is a prerequisite to expanding nuclear energy, as it leads to the issue of radioactive waste disposal. Given the dearth of study on spent nuclear fuel public acceptance, we use text mining and big data analysis on the news article and public comments data on Naver news portal to identify the Korean public opinion on spent nuclear fuel. We identify that the Korean public is more interested in the nuclear energy policy than spent nuclear fuel itself and that the alternative energy sources affect the position towards spent nuclear fuel. We recommend relating spent nuclear fuel issue with nuclear energy policy and environmental issues of alternative energy sources to further promote spent nuclear fuel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권10호
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• pp.3695-3702
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• 2022

South Korea, a country that built a world-class nuclear power infrastructure, shifted to a nuclear phaseout during the previous government's reign. This shift was pursued as part of a larger task of electricity mix reform, and one of the integral motives for such reform is addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) and fine dust problems. Thus, verifying the relationships between the public's concerns about GHG/fine dust and their acceptance of nuclear power generation is essential for designing public communication strategies to revive nuclear power under the ongoing environmental regime. Our analysis using a nationwide survey sample of South Korea (N = 1009, through proportionated quota sampling method) showed that the more people are concerned about GHG and fine dust, the less they accept nuclear power. These relationships held even after controlling for the effect of a third variable-energy-related environmentalism. This finding means that despite past communication efforts positioning nuclear power as a generation source that can mitigate GHG/fine dust emissions and the widely accepted scientific evidence that supports such positioning, nuclear power in Korea is in jeopardy. Our finding provides implications for public communications and fundamental knowledge for research on the determinants of nuclear power acceptance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권3호
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• pp.1115-1125
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• 2022

Nuclear power plant (NPP) is currently considered as one of the most reliable power sources. However, 182 of them are considered decommissioned and inactive including the one in Bataan, Philippines. The aim of this study was to investigate the acceptance of the reopening of Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) by integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior and Protection Motivation Theory. A total of 815 Filipinos answered an online questionnaire which consisted of 37 questions. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated that knowledge towards nuclear power plants was the key factor in determining people's acceptance towards NPP reopening. In addition, knowing the benefits would lead to positive perceived behavioral control (PBC) and attitude towards intention. Results showed that PBC and attitude are mediators towards the acceptance of people regarding the reopening of BNPP. If an individual's knowledge gravitates towards the perceived risk, then this can lead to the negative acceptance of the NPP reopening. On the other hand, if an individual's knowledge gravitates towards the perceived benefits, then this will lead to positive acceptance. This study is the first study that explored the acceptance of the reopening BNPP. Finally, the study's model construct would also be very beneficial for researchers, government, and even private sectors worldwide.