Nuclear power in China after Fukushima: understanding public knowledge, attitudes, and trust

Abstract

To meet the increasing demand for energy, the past decade has seen the revitalization of nuclear power technologies and many countries adopting nuclear power as a priority strategy in their energy policy. However, Japan’s Fukushima nuclear crisis, following the tsunami on 11 March 2011, challenged perceptions of much of the world’s nuclear power industry – but not in China. To explain how the future of nuclear power is decided in China, this study aims to understand the role of the public in the decision-making through exploring the current public knowledge of and trust in nuclear power, about which there is limited research compared to other environmental issues. Based on a questionnaire survey in Shandong province, this study concluded that, compared to many other countries with nuclear power, China had a different landscape of nuclear power information, knowledge, and trust. This paper helps to explain why the Chinese government is able to continue the development of nuclear power, without much public debate and participation.

Keywords:

• nuclear power risk
• energy policy
• public attitude
• trust
• China

Acknowledgements

This research was financed primarily by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71103175 and 41071355), International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (2012DFA91150), the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (11CDP028). Thanks to the reviewers for their comments.