Knowledge of and Attitude to Nuclear Power among Residents around Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in Jiangsu of China

AIMS: The aims of this paper were to determine the level of knowledge of and attitude to nuclear power among residents around Tianwan Nuclear power plant in Jiangsu of China. DESIGN: A descriptive, cross-sectional design was adopted. PARTICIPANTS: 1,616 eligible participants who lived around the Tianwan nuclear power plant within a radius of 30km and at least 18 years old were recruited into our study and accepted epidemiological survey. METHODS: Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires consisting of a socio-demographic sheet. Inferential statistics, t-test, ANOVA test and multivariate regression analysis were used to compare the differences between each subgroup and correlation analysis was conducted to understand the relationship between different factors and dependent variables. RESULTS: Our investigation found that the level of awareness and acceptance of nuclear power was generally not high. Respondents' gender, age, marital status, residence, educational level, family income and the distance away from the nuclear power plant are important effect factors to the knowledge of and attitude to nuclear power. CONCLUSIONS: The public concerns about nuclear energy's impact are widespread. The level of awareness and acceptance of nuclear power needs to be improved urgently.