Interaction with the Public as a Condition for the Development of Nuclear Energy

An urgent problem for many countries of the world is the search for energy sources that are the safest and do not harm nature. For a long time, hydroelectric power plants were considered such. However, they cannot be built everywhere. Sources of electricity that require the burning of coal, oil, gas, poison the atmosphere. Nuclear power plants that appeared in the middle of the last century began to be perceived as the main way to solve the problem of ensuring the development of industry with the help of a reliable source of electric energy.

However, this was the opinion of specialists who created technologies for the peaceful use of the atom. After the nuclear bombing of two Japanese cities in 1945, the beginning of the nuclear arms race, the idea that nuclear power plants are not as safe as their designers believe was formed and confirmed in public opinion. Uncontrolled processes may begin, which will lead to the threat of an explosion of the reactor. The Chernobyl tragedy and Fukushima not only confirmed public opinion about the danger of nuclear power plants, but also strengthened it. In Western Europe, Japan, where nuclear power plants have been actively built for several decades, there have been actions demanding the curtailment of new construction programs and the closure of existing plants. Political parties that advocate the creation of the safest energy sources based on the use of wind power, as well as the sun, have emerged and actively began to work. The development of these technologies will make it possible to stop the negative impact on the climate of thermal power plants, to remove the threat of possible disasters at nuclear power facilities. This is stated in the Sixth Assessment Report "Climate Change 2022: Impact, adaptation and vulnerability" of the intergovernmental body established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme ^[9].

There was an acute contradiction between the opinions of physicists, designers of nuclear reactors and representatives of the public. As stated in the documents of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), modern nuclear power plants are an effective means of solving problems of nature conservation by safely providing electricity, centralized heat supply to the population, enterprises ^[7]. However, as the Director General of the World Nuclear Association A. Rising admits, the spread of negative opinions by the media and individual politicians is caused by the lack of understandable interaction of scientists with different public groups ^[10].

International communications consultant D. Gordon, analyzing the materials of the session on nuclear energy at the IAEA General Conference in September 2022, found that only one of the 92 events considered the issue of "interaction with stakeholders". According to the researcher, this is due to the fact that the stereotype still prevails: "real" nuclear scientists are qualified engineers, and the opinion of any other person can be rejected. "Learning to communicate properly seems to be an eternal problem for the nuclear industry" ^[10]. In other publications on this topic, the authors note that experts in the nuclear industry for a long time did not consider it necessary to constantly explain to representatives of different social groups the safety of using nuclear reactors based on the use of the latest means of automatic control of their operation ^{[7, 12]}.

Speaking at the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle Forum in April 2021 on the topic: "Selling advantages instead of fear is how to turn the discussion about the future of nuclear energy into a broad and progressive one," Think Atom CEO R. Partanen noted that positive facts about nuclear energy are lost due to poor communications. Today's climate crisis requires active awareness of the many benefits of nuclear energy. "Hire communications specialists instead of engineers to think about what the key ideas are and how to convey them. It should be a conscious effort at the level of senior management to change their culture of external communications, and then plan how this change can happen" ^[11].

The IAEA has been taking actions for several years aimed at improving the effectiveness of interaction with the public, building trust in the field of nuclear and radiation safety and protection. In 2016, the Global Communication Network for Nuclear Safety and Protection (GKSNABZ) was established. A study conducted by this structure in 2020 showed that only 52.9% of representatives of nuclear industry enterprises from around the world noted that their organizations had plans for working with the public, conducting special consultations with interested parties ^[13].

To change this situation, the IAEA consistently pursues a policy of creating conditions for the constant clarification of issues that exist among various public organizations about the operation of nuclear power plants, their degree of safety from earthquakes, floods, possible military actions, etc. The administration of these enterprises should consider the work to create a positive public opinion about nuclear energy as an obligatory part of its management activities, and not as a secondary activity. Establishing regular contacts with local authorities, parties, and public entities will ensure consistency of actions in the event of a possible nuclear or radiological emergency ^[8].

By implementing these installations, Rosatom annually analyzes the attitude of the Russian population to the development of nuclear energy and organizes its interaction with the public accordingly. The report for 2021 states that "the corporation builds systematic constructive interaction with stakeholders in each area of its activities, as well as conducts communication and information work with the public as a whole" ^[5].

A. Timonov, Director of the Communications Department of Rosenergoatom Concern, notes: "We have been conducting diagnostics of social attitudes in the regions of the NPP presence since 2016. According to the dynamics of the results, it is clear that over the years the nuclear power industry is finding more and more support from the population. Which, of course, is facilitated by the fact that nuclear power plants in the eyes of the absolute majority of residents have ceased to be a kind of "scarecrow". We invest a lot of efforts and resources in changing the image of nuclear energy from closed — for the uninitiated to transparent and transparent for everyone. Today, anyone not only has access to the main indicators of the stations, but also the opportunity to visit the NPP physically and personally verify their safety for themselves and for nature. As a result, today nuclear power plants are perceived as large futuristic plants for the production of an incredible amount of energy, and not as objects of increased danger and eternal anxiety" ^[6].

Such work with different social groups leads to the strengthening of a positive opinion about nuclear energy. According to a sociological study by ANO "Levada Center", the share of supporters of the use of nuclear energy in Russia in 2021 was 77.4% (in 2020 - 75.2%); over the past few years, the values of the indicator have remained consistently high ^[5].

On May 4, 2022, the ElaNKom Research Company presented the results of a large-scale sociological survey of the population of the regions where Russian nuclear power plants are located. The survey was conducted in Voronezh, Kaliningrad, Kursk, Leningrad, Murmansk, Rostov, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Smolensk and Tver regions. In total, 10 thousand people from 60 Russian cities took part in it. Sociologists studied the perception of residents of the nuclear industry and their attitude to the activities of nearby nuclear power plants. As noted in the company's report, the general attitude towards nuclear energy is characterized by a significant preponderance of positive ratings over negative ones. In the regions where the NPP is located, over 76% of respondents spoke positively. Among the residents of the coastal cities, this percentage is even higher — 90.37% ^[6].

This attitude to nuclear energy, formed through constant interaction with the population, allows us to confidently make plans for its development in Russia. Head of the State Corporation "Rosatom" A. Likhachev said on August 30, 2022, that Russia continues to be the world leader in the field of nuclear technology. "We are not standing still, we have an instruction inside the country to switch from 20% of nuclear generation to 25%. This implies a large construction of nuclear power units in the horizon until 2040"^[1].

The role of modern digital technologies in creating new forms of interaction with public groups in the information space should be emphasized. Recently, the Russian company "Digital Atom" has developed an interactive simulator — simulator of the information field of this organization on the instructions of the Communications Department of Rosenergoatom. It makes it possible to show in virtual space the ways of interaction of nuclear energy specialists, authorities, and other social actors in the conditions of a hypothetical technogenic accident. It inevitably leads to a wave of requests from the media and citizens, dozens and hundreds of different-tone publications in the media, an aggressive reaction from social networks, etc. It is extremely difficult to reproduce this within the framework of an educational situation.

The interactive simulator allows you to adequately simulate any difficult situation and the readiness of PR departments for it. In the form of a game, the construction of a real information space takes place. The most probable reaction of the media and Internet users to the event is shown. The basis is either fictional, or an emergency situation that has already occurred once. This software product exists in the form of a web-based solution that allows participants to connect to the training from anywhere in the world. The simulator is a unique solution for training PR departments of large companies and government agencies to act in a possible crisis situation.

At the moment, several foreign organizations operating nuclear power plants have shown interest in the project. The interactive simulator of Rosenergoatom was recognized as the best Russian project of 2021 in the field of anti-crisis communications. He has also gained recognition internationally. It was highly appreciated by the International Atomic Energy Agency ^{[3, 4]}.

The use of new technologies for organizing the interaction of peaceful atom specialists with the population is changing the public opinion of different countries about this energy source. In September 2022, for the first time since the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, which was in 2011, the IAEA revised its annual forecasts towards an increase in the growth of capacities for the production of this type of electricity. According to forecasts, by 2050, the global capacity of nuclear power plants will more than double. "The decisive moment of the world's transition to a safer, more stable and affordable energy future has come," said IAEA Director General R. Grossi ^[2].

           Summing up, we note that the formation of a positive attitude of different social groups in all countries of the world is one of the important conditions for the further development of nuclear energy. The necessity of constant interaction of specialists with the population to overcome stereotypes about the high danger of modern nuclear power plants is realized. New communication technologies should be widely used when working with public organizations, parties dealing with environmental problems. However, in our opinion, it is necessary to create a system for constantly informing different social groups of the population about technologies that are used to reduce the likelihood of emergency situations at nuclear power plants. This system includes the acquisition by schoolchildren and students of basic knowledge about nuclear energy, the appearance in the media of special information programs about the state and prospects of its development in the world, the adoption of laws ensuring the safety of nuclear power plants in the event of military conflicts.  

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