The Framing Effects of Compensation and Taboo Trade-offs on Acceptance of NIMBY Facility : A Scenario Experiment of High Level Radioactive Waste Geological Repository

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of compensation framing on acceptance of a high level radioactive waste (HLW) geological repository. Monetary compensation is sometimes provided for local governments as a benefit for accepting certain risks. However, Fray et al. (1996) demonstrated that monetary compensation failed to procure acceptance of a nuclear waste disposal repository. In reality, offering to improve social welfare is also sometimes used as compensation for accepting a risky facility. From the above, we hypothesized that monetary compensations would be rejected by residents of proposed site. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a scenario experiment. We conducted a web-based survey and obtained 1200 valid Japanese responses. The results demonstrated that there were no main effects of condition, which suggested that the framing of compensation had no significant impact on acceptance of a HLW geological repository.