Thinking and Exploration of Public Communication in Nuclear Power under the New Normal
Source: China Nuclear Industry News Date: 2016-05-11
The 20th Pacific Nuclear Energy Conference held in April specially opened a forum for public acceptance and nuclear energy knowledge management. At the forum, ten guests including the chairman of the Pacific Nuclear Council, the secretary general of the French Nuclear Society, the chairman of the American Nuclear Society, the chairman of the Canadian Nuclear Association, and the representative of the International Atomic Energy Agency fully exchanged and discussed the public acceptance. Zuo Yue, the public communication manager of China Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., attended the forum as a guest, and spoke on the significance of public communication for the development of nuclear energy, the status of public communication in the world ’s nuclear energy, and the situation of nuclear communication in China.
Nuclear power development faces "new normal"
As an important pillar to improve the atmospheric environment, provide energy support and adjust the energy structure, plutonium nuclear power has once again entered a new stage of rapid development and large scale of development in recent years. Actively promoting nuclear power construction and promoting nuclear power exports is an important energy strategy in China, and it is also a good practice for the country ’s “Belt and Road” construction initiative and “going out” strategy. It is also the implementation of the five major innovation, coordination, green, open, and shared The vivid practice of the development concept is of great significance for meeting the growing energy demand of economic and social development, achieving coordinated development of energy, economy and ecological environment, and enhancing China's international influence, comprehensive economic strength and sustainable development level.
At the same time, with the gradual increase of the public's awareness of participation in the management of public affairs, coupled with the diversified development of the media and the popularization of the Internet, the development of nuclear power is facing a "new normal" that has been tested by the public. The state has also paid more and more attention to safeguarding the public's right to know, participate and monitor in major projects, and public opinion has become one of the decisive factors for whether nuclear power projects can land. Even though China's nuclear power has more than 30 years of experience in safety development, many people still don't know much about nuclear power and even have misunderstandings. Public opinion incidents such as the Jiangxi Pengze nuclear power project that raised questions about inland nuclear power in recent years have sounded alarm bells for the development of nuclear power, revealing that we still lack in public communication. In the process of decision-making and implementation of nuclear power projects, only by actively establishing a platform for multi-party dialogue among the government, the public, enterprises, and social groups, to do a good job of public communication and to win public support, can a good public opinion atmosphere and healthy and sustainable development of nuclear power be created. social environment.
After continuous exploration and accumulation in recent years, China ’s nuclear power public communication has explored some methods and methods suitable for the national conditions, established some platform positions with local characteristics, and achieved some successful experiences. However, the speed of nuclear power public communication in China does not match the speed of nuclear power development. The public communication lags behind the development of nuclear power. The public has limited knowledge and understanding of nuclear energy. Some members of the public have doubts. The work on nuclear power public communication is still far away. Far from enough. After the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, relevant agencies investigated the spread of nuclear energy knowledge in China, and the results showed that 88.7% of people believed that nuclear energy was "potentially dangerous and needs to be used with caution". The factors affecting public acceptance of nuclear power are mainly the following:
Questioning safety. Nuclear power is a recognized economic, clean, and energy source with broad prospects for development. It is an important measure to solve global energy security, reduce harmful gas emissions, and meet the challenges of climate change. However, for the general public, the focus on nuclear power is not how much power can be provided, how much environmental pressure can be relieved, and how much tax can be created for the locality, but whether nuclear power is safe, whether accidents will occur, and people's lives will be safe. How much impact. At present, the probability of extreme accidents that may release a large amount of radioactive materials at nuclear power plants can be controlled between 10-4 / reactor years to 10-6 / reactor years. However, in the public mind, "the probability is very small" and "the probability is zero" are two different things. The environmental impact of the Fukushima accident in Japan and the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union is global.
Acquisition of information. At present, public information sources are very extensive. In addition to traditional media such as television, newspapers, and radio, the Internet has become one of the main ways for ordinary people to obtain information. However, due to the special nature of nuclear power, there is very limited information on nuclear power available to the public. Some research results show that when people lack clear background information and do not form a fixed point of view, they are easily influenced by some surface information. The public's intuitive judgment is susceptible to the external environment and has subjective and irrational characteristics. This makes it easy to reinforce and amplify the negative information in it, thereby forming a kind of fear and resistance to the nuclear in the public's mind.
Trust in authority. When the public has considerable confidence in the authority, they rarely question the authority's nuclear power policy, and nuclear public acceptance is good. Nuclear power in France, for example, accounts for about 75% of total power generation, and nuclear power development has received long-term support from most of the public. But when the credibility of authoritative institutions is not enough, ordinary people will have doubts, especially after a nuclear accident, this kind of trust drops sharply. Investigations following the Fukushima accident in Japan have shown that public acceptance of nuclear energy has declined significantly. The nuclear fuel industrial park incident in Jiangmen, China, is a good warning. The comparison of investigation concerns shows that the proportion of people who question the government's approval process for the project exceeds 41%.
In addition to the above factors, factors such as knowledge level, living background, world outlook, values, gender, economic status, and occupation will affect the public's acceptance of nuclear power to varying degrees.
Inspiration from the characteristics of public communication in the world's nuclear power
After long-term practice and accumulation, some of the major nuclear power development countries in the world have formed a relatively complete legal system and relatively mature experience, which can provide a good reference for China's nuclear power public communication work. Its main characteristics are:
First, the laws and regulations system is sound, and public communication work has laws to follow. The legal system framework for public communication in various countries includes atomic energy law, environmental law, information disclosure law, and relevant regulations formulated in accordance with the law. For example, there are 4 laws in France, namely the "Environmental Code", "Transparency and Safety Law in the Nuclear Field", "Civil Rights Law in Administrative Relations", and "Administrative Relations and Public Relations Act".
The second is to pay attention to citizens 'right to know, to clarify the public's right to obtain nuclear power information through legislation, and to actively protect citizens' right to know in practice. For example, France has set up the "Advanced Committee on Nuclear Safety and Transparency Information" (advisory body) and the "Local Information Committee". The High Commission is responsible for coordinating public communications across the country, raising issues and improving measures. Local information committees are established based on the distribution of nuclear power plants, and are responsible for supervising and urging the disclosure of nuclear power plants and disseminating information disclosure to the public.
Thirty-three is the wide range of nuclear power public communication and high transparency. In general, all information related to public health, safety, and environmental impact and the information that the public is most concerned about will be used as the content of public communication, which roughly includes national laws and regulations, government decisions and ordinances, emergency measures, safety protection and environmental protection. Measures, radiation protection and radiation environment monitoring. In addition, the United States has also clearly stipulated in the law the scope of non-public information.
China's nuclear power public communication needs to be promoted
Compared with the international nuclear developed countries, although the public communication of nuclear power in our country is constantly receiving attention from various parties, it still needs to be promoted. On the one hand, the domestic public knows very little about nuclear power operation and management, and is more afraid of talking about “nuclear”. It has resistance to and opposition to nuclear power plant construction projects, and lacks effective trust in China ’s nuclear power regulatory agencies, which hinders the development of nuclear power. Before development. On the other hand, the public wants to know the radiation environment monitoring data closely related to their own health and safety. To this end, the author recommends:
1. Enhance the integrity of science popularization. Based on the current status and problems of nuclear power public science popularization, nuclear power public scientific popularization can be guided by the principles of “integrating resources, highlighting key points, coordinating sectors, and interacting at the grassroots level”. In all aspects, we will focus on building a high-quality team, a flexible working mechanism, and a number of popularization demonstration bases for science popularization, further improve the science popularization network of nuclear power units, and promote the coordinated operation of the scientific popularization work of nuclear power enterprises in an orderly manner to improve the public The recognition and acceptance of nuclear power provides a good public opinion atmosphere and social environment for the safe and efficient development of nuclear power.
2. Improve the transparency of information disclosure. At present, the National Nuclear Safety Administration and various nuclear power plants have carried out some information disclosure and release work through the official website, but on the whole, the content involved is more professional, and it is difficult for the public to obtain valid information from it. Environmental radiation monitoring information is the most urgently hoped by the public. Publishing environmental radiation monitoring data is the best way to avoid rumors in some public opinion events. If monitoring data can be incorporated into the normalization work and timely release of monitoring data of the radiation environment around the power plant, it will be able to effectively gain public trust and reduce fear of nuclear power construction. In addition, the openness and transparency of nuclear safety regulatory information, so that the public understands the regulatory workflow, is also conducive to enhancing public trust in China's nuclear power.
3. Strengthen the effectiveness of public participation. At present, public participation in nuclear power projects is being directly participated by experts in nuclear power related fields and government regulatory agencies, and gradually moving towards the participation of general public groups directly related to the interests around nuclear power plant sites. Due to the weak foundation of the science popularization of nuclear power knowledge, and the sensitivity and specificity of nuclear and radiation safety, it is difficult to effectively organize and implement public participation activities. Carrying out public communication objectively and practically, strengthening the effectiveness of public communication, and doing a good job of analyzing public survey objects and confirming the survey contents and methods are the key issues. (Left jump)