A Study on Public Acceptance of Nuclear Spent Fuel Storage Facilities

Abstract

Efforts to promote carbon neutrality are continuing around the world, and nuclear power generation is attracting attention as a source of electricity production that does not emit greenhouse gases. In Korea, nuclear power generation accounts for about 30% of total electricity production, and is used as an important means of reducing greenhouse gases. However, in Korea, there are concerns that the operation of nuclear power plants may end before their design life due to a lack of nuclear spent fuel (NSF) storage facilities. As the saturation of NSF storage facilities within the nuclear power plant site is imminent, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the operator of the nuclear power plant, is trying to expand the storage facility, but it is experiencing difficulties due to strong opposition from residents in the area around the nuclear power plant. In order to smoothly expand NSF storage facilities, it is necessary to improve the acceptance of local residents. Accordingly, this dissertation focused on local residents' acceptance of NSF storage facilities. First, we studied the impact of confirmation bias in polarizing risk/safety beliefs about NSF storage facilities and the impact of trust in government on confirmation bias. An online survey was administered to a sample of 321 residents in South Korea. They were asked to assess their beliefs about the safety/risk of NSF storage facilities before and after their exposure to additional information. Our findings show a positive association between the initial belief and confirmation bias, suggesting that the research participants tend to select articles consistent with their beliefs about the safety/risk of the facility. Trust in government is negatively related to confirmation bias, implying that residents with a greater level of trust in government are more likely to choose information opposing their initial beliefs. Also, this study finds that residents’ initial beliefs are reinforced rather than undermined after they freely reviewed self- selected articles. Second, we studied the impact of procedural fairness and conflict perception on the acceptance of NSF storage facilities. Employing structural equation modeling, we examine the roles of perceived procedural fairness and perceived local conflicts in the traditional model of trust, knowledge, and perceptions of risks and benefits. Our findings demonstrate that perceived procedural fairness significantly influences trust, which further mediates the relationship between perceived local conflicts and benefit and risk perceptions, ultimately shaping local acceptance of temporary NSF storage facilities. Our findings underscore the importance of perceived procedural fairness and trust in shaping local acceptance and highlight perceived local conflicts’ role in amplifying the perceptions of benefits and risks. Based on the above research results, we proposed ways to reduce confirmation bias and improve the acceptance of NSF storage facilities. The importance of educational programs to alleviate polarization caused by confirmation bias was emphasized. In order to improve the acceptance of NSF storage facilities, procedural fairness and trust in the government must be strengthened, and for this, local residents' participation in decision-making and transparent communication are necessary.