Public sector effects and social impact assessment of nuclear generating facilities: Information for community mitigation management

The socioeconomic effects of nuclear generating stations emerged as a major regulatory concern in the late 1970s. The trend toward socioeconomic impact monitoring presented a need for identifying the salient adverse effects for mitigation on a continuing basis. This chapter reports the findings of a major socioeconomic impact assessment of nuclear power plants for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It investigates the nature and magnitude of the effects of construction and operation of twelve commercial nuclear facilities through retrospective analyses. The chapter aims to develop an operational approach that would link measurements of traditional economic-demographic elements to aspects of social structure, public evaluation and political response. It aims to test the validity of the methodology and to evaluate other approaches to be used in projective assessments of impacts of hazardous technology. One of the major issues in community impact management is the gap between revenues generated by energy projects and expenditures for public facilities and services because of project-induced growth.