Public concerns and the public role in siting nuclear and chemical waste facilities
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1987
Department
College of Sciences and Arts
Abstract
Nuclear and chemical waste facilities can be successfully sited, despite nimby responses, if siting programs account for the sources of public concern. Irrational fear is not the main source; instead, waste managers must deal with perceived inequities in the distribution of benefits and costs, and concern about facility safety. Benefit-cost inequities may be dealt with in part by keeping wastes where they are generated, through political restrictions, or by providing economic compensation and political incentives (for example, a local veto). Assuring people of facility safety includes allowing local control (monitoring, health assessment, regulation), and enhancing trust of facility managers through such means as rectifying past mistakes, individual-oriented education campaigns, and negotiation of compensation packages with local residents. These means should reduce -without eliminating-public opposition to local siting of nuclear and chemical waste facilities.
Publication Title
Environmental Management
Recommended Citation
Johnson, B.
(1987).
Public concerns and the public role in siting nuclear and chemical waste facilities.
Environmental Management,
11(5), 571-586.
http://doi.org/10.1007/BF01880156
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/4334
Publisher's Statement
© 1987 Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01880156