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

Chuanwang Sun,Nan Lyu,Xiaoling Ouyang

doi:10.3390/su6107197

Chuanwang Sun, Nan Lyu + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su6107197

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Oct 17, 2014
Citations: 88	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Xiamen University, East China Normal University

Abstract

In spite of the decreasing share of nuclear power all over the world, China resumed the approval of large-scale construction of nuclear power plants in 2012. However, influenced by the worldwide spreading anti-nuclear attitudes, people who live near nuclear power plants showed increasing concerns about nuclear risks. Consequently, the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome of nuclear power plants should be evaluated prudently to support the healthy development of nuclear power in China. Based on the face-to-face survey data, this study estimates Chinese public willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid having nuclear power plants in the neighborhood. The respondents include both residents who currently live near and those who would live near nuclear power plants in the future. Considering the possible presence of the sample selection bias caused by protest responses, this paper constructs a two-step sample selection model with the protest responses and the double bounded dichotomous choice (DBDC) questions. Using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), we measure the effects of influencing factors of public WTP and study the decay of WTP with longer distances from nuclear power plants. The results suggest that most people are willing to pay higher electricity prices to avoid having nuclear power plants in the neighborhood. Comparing the WTP to avoid having nuclear power plants nearby with the current electricity price, we find that there is an increase of 56.7% and 69.1% of respondents’ WTP for a nuclear power plant located 80 km and 30 km, respectively.

Highlights

The Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 has made severe social, political and economic impacts worldwide, making nuclear power come to the fore as threats to global society [1,2]
Will residents show different willingness to pay (WTP) at different construction phases of the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) facilities?. We explore this by evaluating and comparing the WTP of residents who live in coastal areas where nuclear power plants have already constructed, and those who live in inland areas where nuclear power plants would be built in the future
When the scenario changes to be constructing a nuclear power plant that located 30 km nearby, the probability of giving protest responses from respondents would no longer be significantly influenced by these explanatory variables

Summary

Introduction

The Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 has made severe social, political and economic impacts worldwide, making nuclear power come to the fore as threats to global society [1,2]. Opinion polls show that public support for nuclear power has declined dramatically since the Fukushima nuclear disaster [3]. Most public protests can be attributed to the Not In. My Backyard (NIMBY) attitude regarding nuclear power facilities. My Backyard (NIMBY) attitude regarding nuclear power facilities This phenomenon, which has been widely reported [6,7,8,9], is the case that the construction of new nuclear facilities is often strongly opposed by residents who live in the neighborhood [10]. Due to the sharp decline of public acceptance, the share of nuclear power in electricity generation decreased from 16.8% in 2011 to 13.5% in 2012 [11]

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