A TPB-based Study On Factors Influencing Public Participation In China’s Nuclear Power Project

With the development of economic, society and people’s living standards, thepublic awareness of participation in the management and decision-making of varioussocial and public affairs has been gradually raised.Public participation has become animportant means in coordinating social development and public desire. For a longtime, the public has lived in fear of nuclear power, especially after the nuclear crisis ofthe Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, which has further increased the publictension for nuclear projects. However, the huge energy gap, the unreasonable energystructure and the serious task of energy conservation have left China with no otherchoice but to develop new strategies for nuclear power. Thus, it is extremelyimportant to obtain the public understanding and support for China’s nucleardevelopment under such a special situation.At present, public participation in China’s nuclear power project is still in itsinfancy, with the understanding of the work itself quite superficial, the participationfrequency low and the behavior rather passive. At present, public participation inChina’s nuclear power project is still in its infancy, with the understanding of the workitself quite superficial, the participation frequency low and the behavior rather passive.Based on planned behavior theory, the paper aims to make a deep analysis of the mainfactors which play an important role in behavioral intention in the participationprocess of China’s nuclear projects by building a behavioral intention model andrelevant questionnaire investigation.This paper uses structural equation model (SEM) analysis method and tries totest the hypothetical model with survey data. The results show that, the factors“Behavioral Attitude” and “Perceived Behavioral Control” have significant impact onpublic participation intention, while the “Subjective Norm” has negative effect onbehavioral intention. Several external variables such as age, educational attainment, living distance and residence time all have great impact on the behavioral intention.The conclusion shows that the theory of planned behavior and the model built in thispaper is applicable to the research of public behavioral intention in the participationprocess of China’s nuclear power project, thus providing a new research perspectivefor public participation research. Finally, according to the results of the research, theauthor also gives out some solutions and suggestions, hoping to provide reference forpolicy-makers and relevant executors.