Chinese Public and Nuclear Experts May Have Different Perceptions Of Severe Nuclear Accidents

Abstract

Nuclear power has been a controversial social issue, and societal acceptance is critical to its development and future. In addition, risk informed rules and regulations rely on the public’s understanding. However, there seems a communication gap about nuclear safety between nuclear experts and the public in China, and three questionnaire surveys were conducted to better understand Chinese public’s perceptions of a severe nuclear accident. The sample sizes were 117, 280 and 1071. Most of the respondents were students or white-collar workers born after 1990. In these three surveys, we found that more than 85% of respondents consider a less severe accident as a severe nuclear accident, and most respondents considered an incident to constitute a severe nuclear accident. The results demonstrate that nuclear experts and Chinese public may have different definitions of a severe nuclear accident. Therefore, we suggest that the definition of severe accidents should be better explained to the public to benefit the communication about risk informed rules and regulations. In addition, our three different surveys yielded a similar result, and we anticipate that a questionnaire survey with a larger sample size would do the same.