Determinants of public acceptance on siting a geological disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste in France

Osawa, Hideaki  ; Otomo, Shoji*; Onuma, Susumu*; Hirose, Yukio*

This study examined determinants of public acceptance regarding siting a geological disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in France, where a candidate site has been selected following on a variety of public involvement activities. Data from 886 French residents were collected in 2014 by an internet survey that was performed near a district that is a candidate for a HLW repository and in an outlying region away from the candidate site. Results indicate that procedural fairness, intergenerational subjective norm, public benefit and personal benefit were significant factors for public acceptance in dealing with the NIMBY issue in addition to factors such as trust, risk perception and stigma, dealt with in previous research on risk analysis. Furthermore, personal benefit and affect had stronger impact on the acceptance than public benefit, procedural fairness and intergenerational subjective norm.