The impact of crisis exposure on nuclear power acceptance in China

Despite China’s substantial policy and technological advancements in developing its nuclear power industry, public apprehension over potential nuclear accidents remains a persistent obstacle. The rarity of such incidents poses a unique challenge for effectively communicating the long-term and imperceptible risks of nuclear power to the public. This study examines how public exposure to different crises influences the acceptance of nuclear power. We conducted face-to-face surveys following the Fukushima contaminated water discharge (FCWD) declaration and the COVID-19 pandemic among residents of Lianyungang, a coastal Chinese city adjacent to a major nuclear power plant. Grounded in the availability heuristic framework, we proposed four hypotheses linking public perceptions of these two crises to nuclear power acceptance and tested them using parallel multiple mediation models. Our findings reveal that public acceptance of nuclear power increased after both crises, reaching its highest level in 2023 over the 2008-2023. Perceived risks from both crises elevated perceived nuclear risks, thereby reducing acceptance—consistent with the stigmatization and affective generalization hypotheses. In contrast, trust in the government’s handling of both crises positively influenced acceptance via increased trust in governmental nuclear safety management, identifying trust spillover as the dominant cross-crisis mechanism promoting acceptance. Our study concludes that future nuclear communication strategies should address risk perception spillovers from accessible crises and, critically, enhance government trustworthiness through effective crisis management. This involves improving general crisis response capacity, ensuring policy transparency, and reinforcing resource assurance in non-nuclear crises, to strengthen public confidence in governance. Such an approach may prove pivotal in aligning public perception with the realities long-term risks and societal benefits of nuclear power.