Discussion About Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment in China’s Nuclear Power Plant Project

Abstract

Public participation systems in environmental impact assessment started late in our country. Relevant laws, regulations, and work protocols need to be further improved. In this study, extensive research was conducted on the public participation systems in the environmental impact assessment of foreign nuclear power plants. Analyze the current status of our public participation systems were drawn from legal aspect and the aspect of implementation. Together with case analysis, main problems of public participation systems in environmental impact assessment of China’s nuclear power plant were summarized from this study: (1) delayed information disclosure; (2) the scope of public participation need to be widened; (3) interactive platforms are required for convenient and efficient public participations instead of a single participation approach; (4) timely response to the platforms and more supervision over the participation systems are desired. Solutions to each problem are proposed to help develop relative regulations and the implementation of these regulations.