IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-02139-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public acceptance of nuclear waste disposal sites: a decision-making process utilising the ‘veil of ignorance’ concept

Author

Listed:
  • Miki Yokoyama

    (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)

  • Susumu Ohnuma

    (Hokkaido University)

  • Hideaki Osawa

    (Sector of Nuclear Fuel, Decommissioning and Waste Management Technology Development, Japan Atomic Energy Agency)

  • Shoji Ohtomo

    (Kanto Gakuin University)

  • Yukio Hirose

    (Kansai University)

Abstract

This study demonstrates that a decision-making process utilising ‘the veil of ignorance’ concept, defined in process terms as beginning from a blank slate encompassing the entire country as potential sites and shortlisting candidate sites based on scientific (geological) safety, promotes public acceptance of siting a repository for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste and fosters procedural fairness. A hypothetical scenario experiment was conducted in Japan, manipulating the site selection process by setting two conditions—one being the application/proposal condition that the Japanese government currently employs, such as an application by municipalities or a proposal by the government, and the other being the veil of ignorance condition, in which multiple candidate areas are selected from a blank slate for the entire land area based purely on geological factors. Three stages of acceptance were presumed—at the level of general management policy, the site selection process itself with a specified decision policy, and the siting of a repository in their area of residence. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) the veil of ignorance condition will be evaluated as a more acceptable and fairer procedure and will engender increased national consensus than the application/proposal condition at the site selection and repository siting stages, and (b) procedural fairness and national consensus will impact acceptance at each stage; these variables at each stage help shape the same variables in the next stage. The results supported these hypotheses. This study discusses the importance of the site selection process, beginning where any de facto site can be a candidate and shortlisting the candidate sites based on scientific criteria.

Suggested Citation

  • Miki Yokoyama & Susumu Ohnuma & Hideaki Osawa & Shoji Ohtomo & Yukio Hirose, 2023. "Public acceptance of nuclear waste disposal sites: a decision-making process utilising the ‘veil of ignorance’ concept," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02139-2
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02139-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-02139-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-02139-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Branden B. Johnson, 1999. "Exploring dimensionality in the origins of hazard-related trust," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(4), pages 325-354, October.
    2. Matthew Cotton, 2009. "Ethical assessment in radioactive waste management: a proposed reflective equilibrium-based deliberative approach," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(5), pages 603-618, July.
    3. Frey, Bruno S & Oberholzer-Gee, Felix & Eichenberger, Reiner, 1996. "The Old Lady Visits Your Backyard: A Tale of Morals and Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1297-1313, December.
    4. Paul Slovic & Mark Layman & Nancy Kraus & James Flynn & James Chalmers & Gail Gesell, 1991. "Perceived Risk, Stigma, and Potential Economic Impacts of a High‐Level Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 683-696, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jaeyoung Lim & Kuk-Kyoung Moon, 2021. "Can Political Trust Weaken the Relationship between Perceived Environmental Threats and Perceived Nuclear Threats? Evidence from South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-13, September.
    2. Gauguier, Jean-Jacques, 2009. "L’industrialisation de l’Open Source," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/4388 edited by Toledano, Joëlle.
    3. Paul Slovic & James Flynn & Robin Gregory, 1994. "Stigma Happens: Social Problems in the Siting of Nuclear Waste Facilities," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(5), pages 773-777, October.
    4. Bellettini, Giorgio & Kempf, Hubert, 2013. "Why not in your backyard? On the location and size of a public facility," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 22-30.
    5. Cousse, Julia, 2021. "Still in love with solar energy? Installation size, affect, and the social acceptance of renewable energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    6. Richard Benjamin & Jeffrey Wagner, 2006. "Reconsidering the law and economics of low-level radioactive waste management," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 8(1), pages 33-53, December.
    7. Christopher D. Wirz & Michael A. Xenos & Dominique Brossard & Dietram Scheufele & Jennifer H. Chung & Luisa Massarani, 2018. "Rethinking Social Amplification of Risk: Social Media and Zika in Three Languages," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(12), pages 2599-2624, December.
    8. Reader, Tom W., 2022. "Stakeholder safety communication: patient and family reports on safety risks in hospitals," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114624, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Di Tella, Rafael & MacCulloch, Robert, 2008. "Gross national happiness as an answer to the Easterlin Paradox?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 22-42, April.
    10. Perlaviciute, Goda & Steg, Linda, 2014. "Contextual and psychological factors shaping evaluations and acceptability of energy alternatives: Integrated review and research agenda," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 361-381.
    11. Drescher, Larissa S. & de Jonge, Janneke & Goddard, Ellen & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2012. "Consumer's stated trust in the food industry and meat purchases," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 507-517.
    12. Miljkovic, Dragan, 2008. "The pitfalls of transition: Crowding out the "National Virtues"," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 2107-2113, October.
    13. William C. Metz, 1996. "Historical Application of a Social Amplification of Risk Model: Economic Impacts of Risk Events at Nuclear Weapons Facilities," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 185-193, April.
    14. Steven D. Levitt & John A. List, 2007. "Viewpoint: On the generalizability of lab behaviour to the field," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(2), pages 347-370, May.
    15. Vuichard, Pascal & Stauch, Alexander & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2021. "Keep it local and low-key: Social acceptance of alpine solar power projects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    16. Björn Bartling & Roberto A. Weber & Lan Yao, 2015. "Do Markets Erode Social Responsibility?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(1), pages 219-266.
    17. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Maennig, Wolfgang, 2015. "Homevoters vs. leasevoters: A spatial analysis of airport effects," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 85-99.
    18. Morita, Tamaki & Managi, Shunsuke, 2015. "Consumers’ willingness to pay for electricity after the Great East Japan Earthquake," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 82-105.
    19. Branden B. Johnson & William K. Hallman & Cara L. Cuite, 2015. "Modeling Retrospective Attribution of Responsibility to Hazard‐Managing Institutions: An Example Involving a Food Contamination Incident," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(3), pages 423-433, March.
    20. McCluskey, Jill & Rausser, Gordon C., 1999. "Stigmatized asset value: is it temporary or permanent?," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt59b1t566, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02139-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.