Risk perception of the public living in vicinity of nuclear power plant / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the attitude toward and perception of the risk of nuclear power plant among the public residing in vicinity of nuclear power plant,as well as the related factors.Methods A face-to-face interview on perceived radiation risks was conducted among 1408 individuals in Liangyungang City, Jiangsu Province.where the Tianwan nuclear power plant was under construction.The four groups was defined according to the distance between the residence of the subjects and the Tianwan nuclear power plant<4 km,4- 8 km,8-30 km and 30-50 km.A was used to collect information on education,working history,religion, perception of major industries hazards especially nuclear power plant,and major factors may influence their perceptions.Ordinal logistic regression model was used to analyze the data.Results About 91.18% of the interviewee heard about the nuclear power plant,35.36% of them had knowledge about Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident,71.05% of them believed that the nuclear power plant had no negative effects on environments, 37.03% of them believed that the nuclear energy was safe.74.27% of them believed that it was necessary for China to develop nuclear energy.63.29% of them supported the construction of the nuclear power plant in local area.Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that the higher education,higher family annual income,male, economic benefits from the nuclear power plant construction,and trust in local government having competency to handling emergencies were positive factors;otherwise,impression on nuclear power plant of bad influences on environment and health were negative factors.An inverted U-shaped with a right tailing relationship between negative attitudes toward nuclear power plant and distance to the plant was found.Conclusions Education, gender,family annual income and expectation of economic benefit returns were the major factors influencing the perception of and attitudes toward nuclear power plant.More works needed to be done to mitigate the negative attitude of the residents in vicinity of nuclear power plant and enhance the public acceptability .