South Koreans' acceptance of hydrogen production using nuclear energy

Abstract

Summary Since May 2017, the South Korean government has been pushing for policies to reduce nuclear power plants (NPPs) and instead expand the use of energy such as renewable energy and hydrogen. In response, the use of nuclear energy for hydrogen production is proposed, which calls for investigating the public acceptance of nuclear hydrogen production (NHP). This study gathered data on South Koreans' public acceptance of NHP on a 5‐point scale from a survey of 1000 people and identified and explored the factors affecting the acceptance, adopting an ordered probit model. Of the interviewees, 40.1% and 19.7% agreed with and opposed NHP, respectively, with the former being about two times more than the latter. The model secured statistical significance, and various findings emerged from the results. For example, people who were living in areas where the NPP is located, people with a small number of family members, old people, and high‐income people were more receptive to NHP than were others. However, neither education level nor gender has a significant impact on acceptance. Moreover, several implications derived during the survey are discussed in terms of enhancing NHP acceptance.

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