COMPARING RISKS BETWEEN RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES AND NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS*

Waste Facilities (RWF) have generated social conflicts. They are usually regarded as some of the riskiest objects in the world. However, if we take account of their characteristics and specifications, we can see that NPS and RWF are largely different risk objects; the former is positive and beneficial in its role as an environmentally friendly energy source with no polluted materials whereas the latter is negative in that it is waste material giving no benefit to society. The two objects have different attributes. However, most people didn’t tend to distinguish two objects. Thus it is questionable what kinds of people do or do not distinguish between the risks of NPS and RWF with rational or analytic power. Our research questions start from whether is possible for individuals to distinguish similar but different risks. We empirically explore who distinguishes between the risks of NPS and RWF. There are many studies about the risk perception of NPS and RWF (Fischhoff et al. 1978; Tanaka 2004). They demonstrate which kinds of variables and characteristics can explain the variances among people regarding risk perception. For example