NB/Z 20617-2021Public communication guide for nuclear power projects in preliminary stage (English PDF)

Foreword

This document was issued on 26 April 2021 by the National Energy Administration of the PRC and takes effect on 26 July 2021.

It is a NB/Z guiding technical document: it does not oblige, it guides.

It is classified under ICS 27.120.20, Chinese classification F 69.

This document was drafted in accordance with the rules given in GB/T 1.1-2020 Directives for standardization - Part 1: Rules for the structure and drafting of standardizing documents.

This document was proposed by the Nuclear Power Standardization Technical Committee of the Energy Industry.

This document is under the administration of the Nuclear Industry Standardization Research Institute.

Drafting organizations of this document: Nuclear Power Operation Research Institute of CNNC; China National Nuclear Power Co., Ltd.

Main drafters of this document: Guo Jun, Ye Xiang, Zuo Yue, Wang Zhenqing, Hu Xiaocong, Wang Yang, Fang Zhaoxia, Shen Shuguang, Li Sujia, Huang Fang.

1 Scope

NB/Z 20617-2021 is the Chinese guiding technical document for the public communication an operator has to carry out before the first concrete is poured for a nuclear island. It exists because in China the binding constraint on new nuclear build has for some years been social rather than technical: several projects have been suspended or moved after local opposition, and the industry treats public acceptance as a risk to be managed with the same seriousness as a design basis accident. What makes this document unusual is that it does not stop at telling operators to inform the public. It builds a vocabulary for what opposition actually is, defining the not in my backyard effect and then dividing the behaviour it produces into three graded kinds - self-hold behaviour, in which people quietly avoid and stockpile; message collection and dissemination behaviour, in which unverified risk information is gathered and passed on; and agonistic behaviour, the banners, the anti-nuclear organisations and the collective strolling that damage social stability. It defines nuclear safety anxiety and separates accident anxiety from environmental anxiety and from capability anxiety, and it defines the warning signs and risk grades by which a rising problem is detected before it becomes a crisis. Clause 4 then sets the operational requirements across five areas: public information, public participation, information disclosure, response to public opinion, and social stability analysis. The requirements are concrete rather than aspirational: a dedicated public reception centre; information work covering the whole province with a priority zone of 15 km and an information zone of 30 km from the site, extended into neighbouring provinces where the zone crosses a boundary; questionnaire surveys of at least 300 responses per round, sampling both inside 15 km and out to 30 km; discussion meetings of at least 30 people with minutes published promptly; public hearings of at least 15 representatives announced in advance; and a written undertaking of responsibility for the truthfulness of the public participation statement. Three informative annexes carry the assessment criteria, an assessment method and a modular questionnaire for measuring public acceptability of nuclear energy. It was issued on 26 April 2021 by the National Energy Administration and took effect on 26 July 2021.

This document specifies the basic requirements for the public communication activities carried out by the operating organization during the preliminary stage of a nuclear power project within the territory of the People's Republic of China.

This document applies to the conduct of public communication activities by the operating organization during the preliminary stage of a nuclear power project; other nuclear facilities may use it for reference.

2 Normative references

This document has no normative references.

3 Terms and definitions

The following terms and definitions apply to this document.

3.1 nuclear power project in preliminary stage

The stage of a nuclear power project before the date of the first concrete pour of the nuclear island (FCD).

3.2 public communication

The process of transmitting information to the public and obtaining information from the public, within a given social environment and by various means of information exchange, with the aim of obtaining the understanding or the positive response of the public.

3.3 performance assessment

The periodic and non-periodic assessment of the capability and the performance of the object of assessment, carried out in accordance with predetermined criteria and a defined assessment procedure, using scientific assessment methods and following the content and criteria of the assessment.

3.4 not in my backyard

The situation in which residents or organizations, worrying that a construction project will bring many negative effects on their physical health, on the quality of the environment and on the value of their property, develop feelings of aversion and the do not build it in my backyard mentality, and thereby adopt strong and determined, and sometimes highly emotional, collective opposition or even protest behaviour.

3.5 agonistic behavior

A kind of not in my backyard effect (3.4). Strongly resistant behaviour that arises when emotional dissatisfaction rises to a certain level and that has a certain destructive effect on social stability, including relocation or flight, meaning disorderly flight, and resistance and opposition, such as hanging banners, setting up anti-nuclear organizations and collective strolling.

3.6 self-hold behavior

A kind of not in my backyard effect (3.4). Self-hold behaviour is the passive behaviour chosen by members of the public when they feel powerless in the face of a nuclear power project and of nuclear risk. Its effect is weaker than that of message collection and dissemination behaviour and of agonistic behaviour, and it does not immediately damage social stability. It includes avoidance, such as going out less often or moving away from the source of pollution, and protection, such as refusing to buy certain suspect goods, stockpiling protective supplies and undergoing regular medical examinations.

3.7 message collection and dissemination behavior

A kind of not in my backyard effect (3.4). Behaviour in which members of the public, out of a heightened concern for nuclear safety, privately exchange information related to the nuclear power project, and in particular negative information, in an attempt to confirm the risk and to share their worry. Note: information here refers in particular to unverified statements or interpretations of some matter. Message collection and dissemination consists of two stages. The first stage takes the form of the collection of formal or informal information, such as following media reports about the nuclear power project or about nuclear risk, picking up fragments of what others say, and noticing signs of risk related to nuclear matters. In the second stage the public then pass the risk information on to the people around them without verifying it.

3.8 nuclear safety anxiety

The anxiety brought to people by the safety risk that exists in the construction and operation of a nuclear power project. It includes the following kinds: accident anxiety, which takes the form of fear that a nuclear accident cannot be predicted, and of insomnia caused by worry about a nuclear accident; environmental anxiety, directed mainly at the damage that the nuclear power project brings to the living environment, such as worry that the radiation dose will exceed the limit, doubts about the treatment of nuclear waste and the suspicion that the water supply and the food have already been contaminated; and capability anxiety, such as regret at living near the nuclear power project combined with the inability to change it, not knowing what to do because of one's own lack of ability to withstand a nuclear accident, and understanding of and agreement with self-protective behaviour such as panic buying of salt.

3.9 clinical manifestation of anxiety

The clinical manifestations produced when safety anxiety reaches a relatively high level, so that a person's condition goes beyond the psychological and emotional and is projected further into physiological reactions.

3.10 social stability risk

The possibility that the social conflict and social instability in the surrounding area caused by a nuclear power project bring about the outbreak of a social crisis in that area, specifically including instability of the social order and instability of the social mood.

3.11 warning sign

A phenomenon that appears in advance, and that can be observed, during the incubation and growth of a hazardous situation.

3.12 risk grade

The early warning level, artificially divided in order to express the severity of the risk, obtained by combining historical experience with the analysis of the warning sign alarm zones by qualitative and quantitative methods.

4 General requirements for public communication

4.1 Overall requirements

The main objective is to raise the acceptance of the nuclear power project by the public, to reduce as far as possible the occurrence of the not in my backyard effect, and to build harmonious public relations. During the preliminary stage of a nuclear power project the operating organization shall carry out its public communication work on the basis of the requirements of national law, of the administrative regulations of the State Council and of the departmental rules issued by the various ministries and commissions. On that basis the operating organization also has to draw fully on the good practices of public communication in the nuclear power industry, and continuously improve the performance of its public communication.

4.2 Basic requirements

4.2.1 General

The operating organization shall strictly fulfil each of the requirements of national law, of the administrative regulations of the State Council and of the departmental rules issued by the various ministries and commissions, and shall carry out work in the five areas of public information, public participation, information disclosure, response to public opinion, and social stability analysis.

4.2.2 Public information

4.2.2.1 Performance objective

During the preliminary stage of the nuclear power project the operating organization provides sufficient resources and adopts reasonable forms to carry out public information work directed at the public, ensuring that the information reaches all the stakeholders of the project.

4.2.2.2 Common practice

This includes:

a) the operating organization shall establish a dedicated public reception centre, so that the public can conveniently consult information relating to the nuclear power project;

b) before consulting public opinion widely, the operating organization should popularise knowledge relating to nuclear power among the public of the locality of the nuclear power project by direct and effective means; the forms adopted should include, but are not limited to, building an internet platform for public information, using new media platforms for publicity, organising specialist lectures on nuclear power knowledge, holding exhibitions of nuclear power knowledge and arranging site visits to the nuclear power plant;

c) the content of the public information carried out by the operating organization during the preliminary stage of the nuclear power project has to cover two aspects, general information about nuclear power and information about the project itself. The general information about nuclear power should emphasise the basic knowledge of nuclear power and the safety measures adopted, the state of nuclear power development in the world and the situation of nuclear power construction in China, and the state of nuclear safety regulation in China. The information about the project should emphasise the contribution that the construction of the nuclear power project makes to local social development, the technology and the safety features that the project intends to adopt, the environmental impact of the project, and the corporate culture, social responsibility and safety commitments of the organization building the project. For an extension project, the information about the project also has to include the construction or operating record of the units already on the site;

d) the operating organization should carry out public information about the nuclear power project throughout the province; the priority information area covers the range of a 15 km radius from the site, and the information area covers the range of a 30 km radius from the site. Where the information area crosses provincial administrative boundaries, public information shall also be carried out in the neighbouring provinces;

e) the operating organization has to assess the management of its public information at regular intervals, prepare an assessment report, and continuously improve the public information work.

4.2.3 Public participation

4.2.3.1 Performance objective

During the preliminary stage of the nuclear power project the operating organization organises public participation activities in various forms, in accordance with the requirements of the regulations, in order to consult public opinion openly and to analyse, evaluate or adopt the opinions expressed by the public.

4.2.3.2 Common practice

This includes:

a) during the preliminary stage of a nuclear power project on a new site, the operating organization may consult public opinion openly by such means as questionnaire surveys, discussion meetings and deliberation by the standing committee of the local people's congress; for an extension project, the operating organization may, building on the public participation already carried out for the existing units on the site, consult public opinion openly in a targeted way by such means as questionnaire surveys and discussion meetings;

b) the operating organization may use the following different forms of public participation: 1) questionnaire survey: the content of the questionnaire shall be reasonably designed; the sample shall be not fewer than 300 responses per round; the participants shall at least fully cover the range of a 15 km radius from the site, and the area between 15 km and 30 km from the site shall also be brought within the sampling range; 2) discussion meeting: the participants shall be representative; the number of participants shall be not fewer than 30 per meeting; the minutes of the meeting shall be published promptly; 3) public hearing: the time, place, subject matter and registration procedure of the hearing shall be announced through the public media or by other means by which the public can become aware of them; the representatives at the hearing shall be not fewer than 15 per hearing; and the hearing shall be held according to the procedure announced in advance;

c) the operating organization has to analyse the opinions expressed by the public, adopt the reasonable suggestions, state in the public participation statement how the opinions of the public have been taken up, and attach a written undertaking assuming responsibility for the objectivity and truthfulness of the public participation statement.