Risk Communication and the Disposal of Radioactive Debris: Answering Questions Without Questioning Answers

Miori Nagashima and Piers R Williamson

Social Science Japan Journal, 2017, vol. 20, issue 2, 163-181

Abstract: Between 2011 and 2014, the Japanese government conducted a ‘wide-area processing’ scheme to dispose of radioactive debris from Iwate and Miyagi prefectures following the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The scheme was designed to hasten recovery in those areas by disposing of radioactive debris in other regions. Although ‘wide-area processing’ was open to localities in all 47 prefectures, only 18 participated. Out of the 18 participants, nine explained their involvement to residents in Question and Answer (Q&A) sections posted on their homepages. This article examines those nine Q&As from the perspective of risk communication. It holds that different risk perceptions were held by localities on the one hand, and residents on the other. While the Q&As ostensibly represented a wider shift from a ‘deficit model’ of risk communication to a ‘democratic model’, they nonetheless operated hierarchically through the construction of ‘ambiguous risks’ as ‘simple risks’ to neglect the ‘concern assessment’ advocated by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC). As such, the Q&As were employed as a moral technique to discipline local populations into accepting the radiation risks generated by the national government’s approach to reconstruction.

Keywords: risk; risk communication; radioactive debris disposal; Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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