Portuguese media representations of nuclear facilities in Almaraz, Spain: beyond borders and risk perception

Abstract

The attitudes and beliefs behind people’s responses to nuclear facilities has been since the 1970s one of the main concerns of environmental psychology and related disciplines. However, analyses have mainly focused on (1) understanding how risk perception and the lack of procedural and distributive justice in the relationship between local communities and authorities and developers impact those attitudes and beliefs, and (2) the perceptions of publics living within the same borders as the facilities. Less attention has been given to how the deployment of nuclear facilities affects communities beyond the border, and, relatedly, can be impacted upon by other intergroup relations and processes, such as more symbolic dimensions of justice. This paper aims to offer a preliminary exploration of how those intergroup processes might play a role in people’s attitudes and beliefs regarding nuclear energy, based on an analysis of the Portuguese media representations of nuclear facilities in Almaraz, Spain. The implications of these analyses for both energy policy and environmental psychology will be discussed.