Korea has operated 23 Nuclear Power Plants(NPPs) since 1978 first NPP(Gori Unit1) and ranks the 5th NPP capacity country in the world. The 30% of the total electricity is supplied by NPP in Korea. NPP are recognized the most economic electricity sourc...
Korea has operated 23 Nuclear Power Plants(NPPs) since 1978 first NPP(Gori Unit1) and ranks the 5th NPP capacity country in the world. The 30% of the total electricity is supplied by NPP in Korea. NPP are recognized the most economic electricity source. However, the fear of public about NPP accidents has spreaded and the public acceptance on NPP has sharply decreased since Fukushima NPP accidents in March 2011. Therefore, government decreased the NPP portion of total electricity facilities from 41% in 2030 to 29% in 2035.
The public acceptance on NPP is an key factor in the NPP policy. But the government's nuclear policy has not been able to meet the change of the public awareness and needs. Just focus on the numerical values of public acceptance on NPP, the government has not been able to recognize the external change surrounding NPP industry, such as development of information and communication technologies. Therefore, in order to study the effect of local awareness on local acceptance on NPP systematically and comprehensively, a survey was performed for 800 local residents on four NPP sites in Korea
The influence factors of local acceptance on NPP, 'nuclear safety trust', 'economic benefits', 'opening of information', 'coenesthesia of local cooperation' are established as independent variables. Gender, age, education, nuclear power sites, the distance from the residence to NPP are established as control variables. 'Nuclear safety trust' and 'economic benefits' were considered the main influence factors of local acceptance on NPP in previous studies. In order to reflect the change of the condition surrounding NPP industry, 'Opening of information' and 'coenesthesia of local cooperation' are established as the independent variables.
On the cognitive aspects, 'opening of information' means the development of information and communication technologies and the information needs of local residents since the Fukushima NPP accident. On the emotional aspects, ‘coenesthesia of local cooperation’ means emotions formated through direct or indirect cooperation between NPP employees and local people.
The results of the correlation analysis among local acceptance on NPP and the independent variables are as follows; 'opening of information' and 'nuclear safety trust' have high correlations with 'local acceptance on NPP'; 'opening of information' has high correlation with 'nuclear safety trust'; 'coenesthesia of local cooperation' has high correlation with 'economic benefits'. The results of the regression analysis among those variables are as follows; the increase of awareness of 'opening of information' will have positive influence on 'nuclear safety trust'; the increase of awareness of ‘coenesthesia of local cooperaton' will have positive influence on 'economic benefits'.
The results of the multiple regression among the independent variables, control variables and local acceptance on NPP are as follows; the increase of awareness of 'nuclear safety trust', 'opening of information', and 'coenesthesia of local cooperation' will have positive influence on the local acceptance on NPP. In other words, the increase of NPP knowledges of local residents will improve the local acceptance on NPP. On the other hand, 'economic benefits' has no effect on local acceptance on NPP. This result is different from the previous studies which suggest "economic support for local residents will improve local acceptance on NPP".
The results of the multiple regression each nuclear power site are as follows; The increase of awareness of ‘economic benefits’, will have positive influence on local acceptance on NPP in only Hanul nuclear power site. On the contrary ‘economic benefits’ have no effect on local NPP acceptance in Kori, Wolsong and Hanbit nuclear power site. The increase of awareness of ‘coenesthesia of local cooperation’ will have positive influence on local acceptance on NPP in Kori and Wolsong nuclear power sites which have the high level of local acceptance on NPP compare to Hanbit and Hanul nuclear power sites.