Public Participation in Decision-Making on Nuclear Research Installations

The aim of this paper was to determine predictors for the intended level of involvement in decision making concerning new installations for nuclear research. The research is based on empirical data from a large-scale public opinion survey in Belgium. Results show that attitudes towards participation and moral norms are the strongest predictors for the intention to take part in public involvement activities, other influential predictors being subjective norms, descriptive norms and time constraints. At the same time, the analysis reveals that financial benefits from participation do not seem to influence people's intention to participate in decision processes related to new nuclear installations.