Social and economic effects from attitudes towards risk

Abstract

Typically, the term ‘risk’ is referred to as the product of a harmful consequence of an activity or event and the probability of its occurrence. For the social and economic components of an environmental assessment, there is a need to broaden the traditional definition of risk because what is considered to be ‘risky’ differs between expert risk analysts and other members of the public. Therefore, for the purposes of a social and economic impact assessment, risk needs to be seen as a subjective experience that is felt by, and is different for, everyone. Given this definition, a social and economic impact assessment needs to relate social and economic effects to people's attitudes towards risk. This paper discusses the methodology that was applied for a social and economic impact assessment completed for the restart of a nuclear generating station in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. This methodology is currently being refined and applied to other nuclear-related projects in Canada.

Keywords:

• risk
• social effects
• economic effects
• nuclear
• triangulation
• public attitudes