Radioactive Waste Management - Public Attitudes Survey for Scotland

Conclusion

This research provides new insights into the perceptions and views towards radioactive waste management in Scotland. Current and reliable insights from the Scottish public are crucial to ensure policymakers are well-informed, and this is the first research of its kind exploring radioactive waste management in Scotland.

A clear finding from this study is that the majority of respondents don't feel informed about radioactive waste management. There is a mixed appetite for more information, with around half of all respondents interested in learning more about radioactive waste management.

Despite this, almost all respondents have never attempted to become informed in the past. If they were to source information themselves, most people would go to academia, internet, Scottish Government and the regulators of the industry. The results suggest respondents are more likely to trust academics more than information sourced from the internet, the Scottish Government or the regulators of the nuclear industry.

The majority of respondents were also of the view that the regulators of the industry, the nuclear industry and the Scottish Government should be doing more to inform the public on radioactive waste management.

Given the broad lack of knowledge of the radioactive waste management process and related policies it is somewhat unsurprising that respondents to the survey didn't know about the best ways to manage radioactive waste.

However, there is broad agreement that there needs to be a robust strategy to manage radioactive waste with the main concerns for environmental, intergenerational and health impacts.

Indeed, protection of human health, the environment and the security of facilities are the top priorities in radioactive waste management. Interestingly, respondents would rather minimise the burden on future generations than keep more options open to them.

In terms of decision-making, people don't feel they have much influence either at local or national level and this was felt more acutely by people living in the most deprived areas.

There were a range of reasons for feeling this way, however the most common included feeling like decisions were made without talking to people, people aren't given the opportunity to input and people don't know how to input.

There was a mixed appetite for wanting to be involved in decision making with around a half of respondents wanting to be involved.

Interestingly, if a new development was to be proposed the majority of respondents would prefer residents of the local community and independent experts to be involved in the decision-making process.