To Fukushima With Love: Lessons on Long‐term Antinuclear Citizen Participation From Three Mile Island

Abstract

We revisit long-term politically active citizens at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the wake of ongoing environmental and nuclear crises in

Trust in the source of received information as a factor related to public perception of shale gas drilling

“…Previous research in the domains of communal psychology, activism studies and technology assessment revealed that (dis)trust of policymakers and media coverage plays a significant role in both attitudes toward energy technologies and in willingness to oppose these technologies (e.g. Angelique & Culley, 2014;Culley & Angelique, 2010;Slovic, 1993). In our studies we wanted to examine whether trust in the source of information on shale gas will predict positive attitudes toward gas extraction.…”

“…Palinkas, Patterson, Russell, & Downs, 1993;Sovacool, 2008). Research shows that attitudes toward energy technologies are shaped by, among other factors, distrust in policymakers and media reporting (Angelique & Culley, 2014;Culley & Angelique, 2010), as well as its perceived impact on the community. For example, based on a survey they conducted, Jacquet andStedman (2013, see also Jacquet, 2012) confirmed that environmental attitudes, industry leasing, and employment experience could predict attitudes toward natural gas development.…”

Control‐Oriented Coping Buffers Stress Responses in Evacuees from a Technological Accident

“…Unlike natural disasters, where there is complete lack of control , technological accidents occur due to failure of systems that are perceived to be under control. Thus, there is the perception of loss of control in a situation where the general public previously took control for granted, and perceptions of loss of control have been shown to be particularly stressful (Angelique & Culley, ; Baum, Fleming & Reddy, ; Baum & Gatchel, ; Drescher, Schulenberg & Smith, ; Fleming, Baum, Reddy & Gatchel, ; Havenaar & van den Brink, ; Lange, Fleming & Toussaint, ; Lange, Toussaint & Fleming, ; Wortman & Brehm, ). This has been shown even when the severity of the situation has not been exaggerated, but is presented as realistically as possible (Greve, Bianchini, Doane, Love & Stickle, ).…”

“…Another area of research on technological catastrophes that has gone relatively unexamined pertains to the time course of a disastrous event. Past research has focused almost exclusively on the long‐term effects of exposure to technological disaster—those effects that are noticeable after one or more years (Angelique & Culley, ; Baum, Fleming & Singer, ; Baum et al., ; Davidson, Fleming & Baum, ; Drescher et al., ; Fleming, Baum, Gisriel & Gatchel, ). Relatively few investigative efforts have been aimed at understanding stress in the acute phase of disaster, and what has been done in this regard has been confined to natural disasters (Bowler, Mergler, Huel & Cone, ; Hamama‐Raz et al., ; Ironson et al., ; Jenkins, ; Nolen‐Hoeksema & Morrow, ; Tang et al., ).…”

Changing perspectives: tracing the evolution of citizen radiation measuring organizations after Fukushima

“…Although its popularity is linked to policy shifts, such as favoring open and inclusive science research (Felt, 2017), it also ties in with the advent of the internet, new communication technologies and technological advancements, creating an easier access for non-experts to participate in scientific research (Haklay, 2013). Next to technological and policy developments, events, such as environmental pollution (McCormick, 2012) and nuclear accidents, including Three Mile Island and Fukushima, can also trigger a public into action (Walsh, 1981;Gricar and Baratta, 1983;Angelique and Culley, 2010, 2014a, 2014b. Particularly the Fukushima accident has created an unprecedented upsurge of citizen science initiatives within the affected area and far beyond, giving rise to international organizations such as Safecast and dozens of local citizen radiation measuring organizations (shimin hōshanō sokutei jo) in Japan (Kimura, 2016;Kenens et al, 2020).…”