The vast majority of the public believes nuclear power is necessary and that risk factors can be managed with science and technology.
Jeong Seung-eun, a professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Sungkyunkwan University, said on the 4th that a survey on "perceptions and experiences of radiation" of 2,000 adults ages 19 to 69 nationwide found that.
The survey was carried out jointly with the Metaverse-based Radiation Safety ICT Research Center at Sungkyunkwan University, a leading research center (CRC) designated by the Ministry of Science and ICT, to comprehensively assess the public's level of trust in Korea's future energy and the safety of science and technology.
According to the findings, 90.3% of all respondents (1,706 people) answered positively (very much so, yes, somewhat) to the statement "nuclear technology needs to be used for our society's energy and industrial development." Only 1.8% (35 people) gave negative responses (not particularly, no, not at all).
Perceptions of safety management for radiation and radioactivity also showed high trust in modern science and technology. While 83.8% of respondents (1,674 people) answered "yes" to the statement "radioactivity and radiation are dangerous," 66.9% (1,337 people) responded positively to "risks related to radioactivity and radiation can be managed with modern science and technology."
The research team said, "These results show that the public reasonably understands the properties of radiation and highly trusts the capabilities of domestic science and technology that strictly control and regulate it." A preference for objective scientific evidence was also confirmed in information acquisition and communication channels.
A total of 83.8% of respondents (1,675 people) said they trust "information based on scientific research results" the most, and 68.0% (1,359 people) said they trust experts as providers of radiation-related information. Only a little over 40% said they trust radiation-related information provided by the government or public institutions. The research team explained that this "suggests that, going forward, it is very important to transparently share professional research data and scientifically verified results in the process of communicating with the public."
Meanwhile, on the psychological side, vague anxiety about the word itself was found to persist. Around 70% of respondents said they "feel psychological tension about the word 'radioactivity,'" and 3.1% of the total (62 people) said they have "postponed or avoided essential medical checkups such as X-rays or computed tomography (CT) out of concern about radiation exposure."
Professor Jeong Seong-eun said, "This survey shows that a large majority of the public trusts the systematic safety management capabilities of advanced science and technology and supports the use of nuclear energy," adding, "To ease vague psychological anxiety and promote the safe development of technology, reliable public communication based on objective research data must continue steadily." The survey was conducted online from June 30 to July 3, and the margin of error is 2.19 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.