TY - JOUR

T1 - The role of trust and risk perception in current German nuclear waste management

AU - Seidl, Roman

AU - Drögemüller, Cord

AU - Krütli, Pius

AU - Walther, Clemens

N1 - Funding Information: This research has been supported by the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (Grant no. 02E11849F), the Volkswagen Foundation, and the Niedersächsische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. We also thank Sandro Bösch for helping with formats and the figures.

PY - 2022/1/30

Y1 - 2022/1/30

N2 - One of the lessons learned in various countries that have to deal with spent nuclear fuel is that finding a proper place and siting a repository for high-level nuclear waste (HLW) cannot be achieved without public consent. After decades of obstruction, Germany recently launched a new, participatory, site-selection process for the disposal of HLW in deep geological formations. Nonetheless, significant opposition is assumed. Therefore, citizens’ trust in the procedure and the agents involved may be paramount. We conducted an online survey (N ≈ 5000) in March/April 2020 to test a theoretical model on trust, perceived risks and benefits, and acceptance. We differentiated acceptance as a dependent variable according to distinct phases: the procedure, a possible decision on a disposal location, and the repository facility itself. The results show that trust is mainly important for explaining acceptance of the ongoing procedure and less so for the acceptance of the decision or the repository facility itself. Moreover, our investigation of the sample using a cluster analysis reveals characteristic patterns of trust, risk perception, and acceptance by three clusters: a cluster focusing on risk perception, an ambivalent cluster, and an indifferent cluster. Trust is lowest in the risk-focused cluster and highest in the ambivalent cluster.

AB - One of the lessons learned in various countries that have to deal with spent nuclear fuel is that finding a proper place and siting a repository for high-level nuclear waste (HLW) cannot be achieved without public consent. After decades of obstruction, Germany recently launched a new, participatory, site-selection process for the disposal of HLW in deep geological formations. Nonetheless, significant opposition is assumed. Therefore, citizens’ trust in the procedure and the agents involved may be paramount. We conducted an online survey (N ≈ 5000) in March/April 2020 to test a theoretical model on trust, perceived risks and benefits, and acceptance. We differentiated acceptance as a dependent variable according to distinct phases: the procedure, a possible decision on a disposal location, and the repository facility itself. The results show that trust is mainly important for explaining acceptance of the ongoing procedure and less so for the acceptance of the decision or the repository facility itself. Moreover, our investigation of the sample using a cluster analysis reveals characteristic patterns of trust, risk perception, and acceptance by three clusters: a cluster focusing on risk perception, an ambivalent cluster, and an indifferent cluster. Trust is lowest in the risk-focused cluster and highest in the ambivalent cluster.

KW - acceptance

KW - nuclear waste repository

KW - procedure

KW - risk perception

KW - trust

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123842604&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/risa.13889

DO - 10.1111/risa.13889

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85123842604

VL - 42

SP - 2704

EP - 2719

JO - Risk Analysis

JF - Risk Analysis

SN - 0272-4332

IS - 12

ER -