Economic and financial benefits as a compensation for living near a nuclear power station a case study of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station

Abstract

Although dwellers living near a nuclear power station are entitled to economic/financial benefits such as increased job opportunities and local tax revenues pertaining to the power station, it is not clear whether such benefits are appreciated by the dwellers. Two findings of this study based upon a social survey of local dwellers living near the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station are summarized as follows. First, an increase in the per capita sizes of the local tax revenue and national subsidies resulted in a larger share of respondents who thought that those revenues are beneficial. Therefore, local dwellers are aware of the sizes of economic/financial benefits. Second, given the same risk level of nuclear disaster, a larger per capita financial benefit resulted in a larger share of respondents who felt compensated for the nuclear risk. However, this increase in the number of compensated respondents is low relative to the increase in the amount of financial benefits. © Atomic Energy Society of Japan.