The effect of values, risk perception and nuclear awareness on the public acceptability of nuclear plants

Nuclear energy that is a crucial problem in development process for energy security is substantially considered important. In addition to this, to what extent the public supports this approaches in order to provide sustainability of the nuclear energy politics in Turkey is also significant. Previous studies have not sufficiently focused on the question of which factors are effective on acceptability of nuclear politics in the sense of Turkish public opinion. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether or not individual and environmental values of public, nuclear risk perception and nuclear awareness are influential on the level of social acceptance. In this context, a questionnaire is conducted with 650 people in Sinop and Mersin where nuclear power plants have been constructed. Analysis of the gathered data are made through the structural equation modelling. In the result of this analysis, it is determined that altruism, environmental sensitiveness and perceived nuclear risks decrease the level of nuclear acceptability, while hedonism and more nuclear awareness increase it. Moreover, these findings show that anti-nuclear view is obviously derived from the low nuclear awareness and high nuclear risk perception. Related to this, in this research, apart from the necessity of increasing nuclear awareness, it is suggested that persuasive mechanisms regarding environmental sensitivity and risk concerns should be formed for the public opinion on the purpose of generating sustainable nuclear politics.