TY - JOUR
T1 - How much do people who live near major nuclear facilities worry about those facilities? analysis of national and site-specific data
AU - Greenberg, Michael R.
N1 - Funding Information: This research was prepared with the support of the US Department of Energy, under cooperative agreement number DE-FC01-00EW07053 entitled ‘‘The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation’’ to Vanderbilt University. The author appreciates the support of Professors David Kosson and Charles Powers and the CRESP Management Board for encouraging this work. Thanks are due to Dr. Marc Weiner for his assistance with the survey instrument and administration, and also to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. Any opinions, findings and recommendations are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of DOE, CRESP III, or Vanderbilt University.
PY - 2009/10
Y1 - 2009/10
N2 - Large nuclear waste management, laboratory and electric power generating complexes are a daunting challenge for state, regional and local planners. A survey of 2101 residents who lived near 11 nuclear power plants and US Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear waste management sites and laboratories was conducted to determine how much nearby residents worried about accidents and chronic emissions at the nuclear sites, how much they trusted the sites' responsible parties, and actions that they wanted responsible parties to take to reduce public concern. Six hundred other people who lived elsewhere in the US were a comparison group. Nuclear site-related issues were a greater concern among the 2101 who lived near the sites than the comparison group. Yet many were more concerned about global warming, traffic congestion, and loss of open space than nuclear technologies. Monitoring the environment and people were the actions deemed most likely to reduce public concern. The results pose a challenge to owner-operators of nuclear facilities, government entities and especially to locally based environmental planners and managers to establish partnerships with each other and diverse communities that will allow them to manage some of these risks for decades and in some cases into perpetuity.
AB - Large nuclear waste management, laboratory and electric power generating complexes are a daunting challenge for state, regional and local planners. A survey of 2101 residents who lived near 11 nuclear power plants and US Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear waste management sites and laboratories was conducted to determine how much nearby residents worried about accidents and chronic emissions at the nuclear sites, how much they trusted the sites' responsible parties, and actions that they wanted responsible parties to take to reduce public concern. Six hundred other people who lived elsewhere in the US were a comparison group. Nuclear site-related issues were a greater concern among the 2101 who lived near the sites than the comparison group. Yet many were more concerned about global warming, traffic congestion, and loss of open space than nuclear technologies. Monitoring the environment and people were the actions deemed most likely to reduce public concern. The results pose a challenge to owner-operators of nuclear facilities, government entities and especially to locally based environmental planners and managers to establish partnerships with each other and diverse communities that will allow them to manage some of these risks for decades and in some cases into perpetuity.
KW - Global warming
KW - Nuclear power and waste
KW - Risk perception
KW - Traffic congestion and open space
KW - Worry
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=70349594076&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09640560903181063
DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/09640560903181063
M3 - Article
SN - 0964-0568
VL - 52
SP - 919
EP - 937
JO - Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
IS - 7
ER -