Measuring the social value of nuclear energy using contingent valuation methodology

Abstract

a b s t r a c tAs one of the promising energy sources for the next few decades, nuclear energy receives more attention than before as environmental issues become more important and the supply of fossil fuels becomes unstable. One of the reasons for this attention is based on the rapid innovation of nuclear technology which solves many of its technological constraints and safety issues. However, regardless of these rapid innovations, social acceptance for nuclear energy has been relatively low and unchanged. Consequently, the social perception has often been an obstacle to the development and execution of nuclear policy requiring enormous subsidies which are not based on the social value of nuclear energy. Therefore, in this study, we estimate the social value of nuclear energy-consumers' willingness-to-pay for nuclear energy-using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and suggest that the social value of nuclear energy increases approximately 68.5% with the provision of adequate information about nuclear energy to the public. Consequently, we suggest that the social acceptance management in nuclear policy development is important along with nuclear technology innovation.

Defining social value in the UK construction industry

“…The contingent valuation method (CVM) assigns a 'cost' to a social measurement by asking a person how much they would pay to keep the service, or the compensation one would accept for not having a service (Jun et al, 2010). A good example of this method is a study that assessed the social value of informing people on nuclear energy (Jun et al, 2010).…”

Chinese Public Willingness to Pay to Avoid Having Nuclear Power Plants in the Neighborhood

“…According to Liao et al [75] and Jun et al [76], the bid price is offered twice in the DBDC question model, and the second bid price is determined by the answer of the first bid b . If the answer is "Yes" for the first question, a higher bid h b will be given; otherwise, a lower bid l b will be given.…”

“…Once the estimated parameters are obtained, we can estimate the fitted value of WTP (for a detailed description of the DBDC model, please see Jun et al [76]). …”

“…In Taiwan, the aggregate WTP for a decrease in the nuclear energy ratio is $675 million New Taiwan Dollar (NTD) [75]. In the case of Korea, the yearly public WTP is 278 million USDS [76]. These WTP estimates provide preliminary information about compensation.…”

“…Based on the survey of CPPNP, we find that the public in China lacks the cognition of nuclear power and relative regulations, which is easily influenced by the media. This indicates the importance of communication with honest information between the public and the stakeholders [76]. Thus, a transparent system for information exchanging about nuclear power development should be built, so that the local dwellers can participate in the decision-making about the location and provision of a nuclear power plant.…”