Construction of high level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal facilities is regulated by Japanese law; however, the candidate sites have not been decided. In this research, we examined how trust, risk perception and benefit perception affects the attitude toward the construct of HLW disposal facilities in quantitative approach. In addition, we examined the difference of determinants between the areas whether there are facilities of nuclear power generation or not (NPG-area, No NPG-area). The hypotheses are below.
1.Trust in government and benefit perception predict the attitude toward construction of HLW disposal facilities positively, while risk perception negatively.
2.Trust in government predicts risk perception negatively.
3.The concern about nuclear power generation is higher in NPG-area than No NPG-area.
4.The effect of risk perception and benefit perception is larger in NPG-area than No NPG-area, while the effect of trust in government is smaller.
We conducted an online survey in 2011 (
N=1120). The results showed that trust and benefit perception predicted the attitude positively, while risk perception predicted negatively. The results also showed that the concern about nuclear power generation is higher and the effect of risk perception is larger in NPG-area than No NPG-area.
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