Bergmans, Anne

Charnley-Parry, Ioan

Cotton, Matthew David

Enander, Ann

Espluga, Josep

Konrad, Wilifred

Meyer, Jan-Henrik

Rowe, Gene

Whitton, John

This report deals with the history of nuclear-society interactions from a social science perspective.Since the beginning of project HoNESt in September 2015, historians have elaborated 20 socalled‘short country reports’ covering most European and major non-European countries (e.g.USA). On the basis of this comprehensive collection of individual studies – each encompassingabout 60 years of history – we have selected seven countries to be analysed in terms of publicperception of, and public engagement with, nuclear energy: Austria, Bulgaria, the FederalRepublic of Germany (FRG), the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom (UK), and the UnitedStates of America (USA). Our findings reveal that each country follows its own nucleardevelopment path with corresponding preference profiles and engagement traditions. However,there are similarities among countries allowing researchers to classify them analytically as eitherneutral to supportive (e.g. UK) or refusing (e.g. FRG) with regard to deploying nuclear power forelectricity production. The varying preference profiles of each country hints at the fact that peoplerefer to a broad scope of heterogeneous evaluation criteria when assessing nuclear technologies.Arguments such as security of energy supply, (dis)trust in decision-makers, climate change, ornational prestige play an important role in the debate. Citizens argue from different points of view.Their perceptions and arguments reflect the complexity of the debate comprising environmental,economic, social, and political considerations. Except for the UK and Bulgaria, where protestsonly occasionally occurred, all countries have faced active civil society opposition against nuclearissues, i.e. public forced communication activities. Pro-nuclear communication processescommissioned by regulators and industry promoters of nuclear power are part of the history ofnuclear-society interactions in each country. However, there is only a handful of examples ofconsultation initiatives, and just one case of a public participation process

Cotton, Matthew

Teeside University's Research Repository

English

D4.2 Comparative cross-country analysis on preliminary identification of key factors underlying public perception and societal engagement with nuclear developments in different national contexts

White Rose Research Online