A survey on the regional characteristics of public's nuclear recognition

A public opinion survey was made to obtain fundamental data for the further enhancement of nuclear public acceptance. After processing and making insight into those obtained data, some proposals were made regarding the methodology of nuclear PRs activity to be taken hereafter. The survey was made in October 1998, for respective 1000 and 500 samples in the northern and southern regions of Fukui prefecture by the door-to-door method, and 1000 samples in the urban region of Kinki district and 350 nuclear specialists both by the mailing method. Questionnaires are to clarify the degree of public's recognition of nuclear energy relative to the other sciences and technologies, which include the degrees of contact with and reliance on the newsmedia, the degrees of interest in and attention to the science and technology along with nuclear technologies, the yes-or-no to the promotion of nuclear generation and so on. The obtained data were processed with the attributes of objects, from which data it became clear the remarkable difference of the extend to understanding of nuclear information between two genders, and the peculiarity of the degree of attention to nuclear news for the public in southern Fukui compared to the other public. It was also found the difference of the recognition of nuclear energy between the general public and nuclear specialists, indicating the clear estrangement between technical safety and social easiness in nuclear energy. Some proposals useful for the further acceptance of nuclear energy were made from the viewpoint of PRs activity. (author)