Citizens’ Communication Needs and Attitudes to Risk in a Nuclear Accident Scenario: A Mixed Methods Study

Joel Rasmussen, Mats Eriksson and Johan Martinsson
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Joel Rasmussen: Crisis Communication Centre, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, 701 82 Örebro, Sweden
Mats Eriksson: Crisis Communication Centre, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, 701 82 Örebro, Sweden
Johan Martinsson: Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, 205 02 Malmö, Sweden

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-17

Abstract: The potential devastation that a nuclear accident can cause to public health and the surrounding environment demands robust emergency preparedness. This includes gaining a greater knowledge of citizens’ needs in situations involving radiation risk. The present study examines citizens’ attitudes to a remediation scenario and their information and communication needs, using focus group data (n = 39) and survey data (n = 2291) from Sweden. The focus groups uniquely showed that adults of all ages express health concerns regarding young children, and many also do so regarding domestic animals. Said protective sentiments stem from a worry that even low-dose radiation is a transboundary, lingering health risk. It leads to doubts about living in a decontaminated area, and high demands on fast, continuous communication that in key phases of decontamination affords dialogue. Additionally, the survey results show that less favorable attitudes to the remediation scenario—worry over risk, doubt about decontamination effectiveness, and preferences to move away from a remediation area—are associated with the need for in-person meetings and dialogue. Risk managers should thus prepare for the need for both in-person meetings and frequent information provision tasks, but also that in-person, citizen meetings are likely to feature an over-representation of critical voices, forming very challenging communication tasks.

Keywords: nuclear accidents; decontamination; risk attitudes; communication preferences; focus group interviews; mixed methods research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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