Research on the response of various persons to information about nuclear power generation

The author surveyed blogs readily available on the Internet for three purposes: (1) to grasp the public response to nuclear problems after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, (2) to determine changes in the number of blogs based on an article search, and (3) to identify the stance of bloggers on the necessity of nuclear power generation based on reading contribution contents. Furthermore the author conducted a questionnaire survey of public response in reference to the results of the blog survey. From the blog survey, it was found that immediately after the accident, the number of blogs which were negative toward nuclear power generation drastically increased, but as time has passed, blogs which are positive are increasing in number somewhat in expectation of stabilized economic and living conditions. The main results of the questionnaire survey are as follows. (1) Many persons want power generation that is non-nuclear; this is because they have good expectations for renewable energy sources or new thermal power generation as an alternative energy and they strongly feel anxious about the issue of disposal of spent nuclear fuel. (2) Because of the risk of negative impacts which electricity shortages bring on the economy and lifestyles, some persons do not want immediate decommissioning of nuclear power reactors, they favor a phase-out of nuclear power generation. Though public opinion about nuclear problems includes the expectation that one alternative energy can be selected, there is a possibility that this opinion will shift to find an optimum energy mix of plural energy sources. (author)