Social and Economic Aspects of Radioactive Waste Disposal Considerations for Institutional Management (1984) / Chapter Skim
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2. Public Concerns
2. Public Concerns
Pages 15-47
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. Power plants, too, underwent a cycle of acceptance prior to the Three Mile Island accident and subsequent public response.
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Nevertheless, there exists a sizable amount of past work that, if tapped judiciously, can suggest major characteristics of public response. Several collections of relevant public opinion polls have appeared in Public Opinion Quarterly (Erskine 1963, de Boer 1977)
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. Recent studies of psychological stress in the people who live near the Three Mile Island nuclear plant have provided additional empirical data on public fear and anxiety (U.S.
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. Questions involving nuclear power appeared on 1980 ballots in an additional six states, and nuclear waste was a primary issue in all but one.
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During the 1970s, however, public attention shifted from environmental to safety issues, prompted by such incidents as the leaking of radioactive wastes from storage tanks at the Hanford Reservation in Washington State in 1973. In 1974, a survey by Opinion Research Corporation found that 52 percent of the respondents believed that waste management was a serious problem.
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740) Enrico Fermi \/{ Price Anderson Act Plant Accident / \ Bodega Head 8< `,J \ Ravenswood `~\ t__ Idaho Accident Chalk River Ace ident ~1 G.E.
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Thus, if the high level of concern about radioactive wastes persists public acceptance will be a difficult goal to achieve for any large-scale waste management program. DEMOGRAPHIC CORRELATES OF PUBLIC CONCERN Public opinion about nuclear power varies according to certain characteristics.
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Other demographic correlates of concern about nuclear power and nuclear wastes are less well understood. Younger persons (those under 30)
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. Mass public support for environmental activism does not imply similar support for antinuclear activism (Mitchell 1980)
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25 Z~ lo O I_ Z ~ UJ LU ~ To r .,: .o ~4, ~ Z Q _ C O ._ ~ 6 J Z ' Z Z ~ I o 1~ ~ o 1 ~ 1 to C" ._ ~ ._ ~ C)
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2 9 7 The disposal of nuclear waste is a problem that can be solved in an acceptable way Agree Disagree Not sure Nuclear power is too dangerous to permit its cant inued expans ion 90 85 2 8 1 66 66 62 21 11 26 14 11 23 12 Agree 2 - 30 17 3 4 Disagree 98 98 70 72 59 Not sure - 2 - 11 7 SOURCE: Marsh and McClennan, Risk in a Complex Society, a Marsh and McClennan Public Opinion Survey, conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., 1980)
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Various surveys of public attitudes prior to the Three Mile Island accident revealed that most people possessed little factual knowledge of nuclear power (Melber et al.
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in Washington state found no s~gn~r~cant a~terence in knowledge between opponents and supporters of nuclear power, it did show that strong supporters of nuclear power were the most knowledgeable group. The Rand Corporation study of the 1976 California referendum found that whereas knowledge was low, it was largely independent of attitudes to nuclear power (Hensler and Hensler 1979)
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Pahner (1976) argues, for example, that a substantial part of the public concern over nuclear power plants represents anxiety "displaced from the fear of nuclear weapons.
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Lifton argues that these fears cannot be eliminated by rational-probabilistic assessments of risk, such as that of the Reactor Safety Study (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1975)
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. THE NATURE OF HAZARD Although many experts hold that the risks posed by nuclear wastes and nuclear power plants are no greater than, and perhaps substantially less than, the risks posed by other generally accepted technologies (National Research Council 1979)
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32 Vl x o .Q C o ~' o C 6 z 5 4 z UJ 3 2 1 ' 1 1 Nuclear Power -- 1 -- T' ~ Eleciric Power ~ \ / \ / __ _ .
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These results are directly relevant to radioactive waste management because the public apparently links it (despite differences in the nature of the hazards) with nuclear power issues more generally.
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34 TABLE 2.2 Fatality Estimates and Disaster Multipliers for 30 Activities and Technologies Geometric Mean Fatality Estimates Average Year Geometric Mean Multiplier Disastrous Year Activity or Technology LOWVa Students LOWVa Students 1. Alcoholic beverages12,0002,6001.9 1.4 2.
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Various public opinion polls have shown a long-term decline in the confidence people have in governmental institutions, public officials, and the press. A 1976 poll revealed
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36 al 0 C~.
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37 1 ' ' ' ' ' 1 0 ._ o ._ 0 x ~ ~/ o ~n J ~ .// e{_ _r 1 1 1 1, ~8V ~ ~ ~ 2 j\ c~ 1ii o ~ ~ ~_ _ ~ o ~ ~ 8 ,- ~ ~ _ .
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It is not surprising that the Keystone Group, composed of leading industry, environmental, and university representatives, could quickly agree that DOE's lack of credibility was a major obstacle to an effective waste management program (Keystone Group 1978) , or that a 1979 General Accounting Office report suggested creation of an overall planning institution outside of DOE as a means of fostering public acceptance (General Accounting Office 1979, p.
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Thus, comparative studies are valuable as a form of intelligence in the short run and as a source of basic understanding for institutional design in the long term. Studies of political action and polls estimating potential electoral response are based on relevant samples: political action involves the self-selected fraction of the population that chooses to participate, and opinion polls rest on solid statistical foundations.
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The republican framework of American government accords fundamental legitimacy to voters and those whom the voters elect as representatives. The repeated affirmations of support for nuclear power, in Congress and the Executive Branch and in state referenda, have therefore set the directions of public policy.
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These imperfections in quality of social scientific data, the scientific interpretation of them, and the use of social science in governance all limit the policy applicability of studies of public concerns. The panel is mindful, however, of the risk that these caveats may lead to the conclusion that social research is useless in repository siting.
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This perception is exacerbated by the fact that most public groups do not distinguish clearly between the risks of nuclear weaponry and nuclear power plants. The extent to which fear over nuclear weapons enters into attitudes on nuclear wastes is difficult to pinpoint, but it is undoubtedly an element in the formation of public opinion.
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Public Opinion Quarterly 27:155-190. Firebaugh, M
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1963. Mass Public Opinion media and the fallout controversy.
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A Marsh McClennan Public Opinion Survey Conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. Summary, N.Y.: Ebasco Services.
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1980. Assessment of National Systems for Obtaining Local Acceptance of Waste Management Siting and Routing Activities.
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1980. Public Opinion on Environmental Issues: Results of a National Opinion Survey.
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