Why are the nuclear reactors where they are in Japan? It’s hard to ask this question right now, but the question, and its answer exposes another layer of moral decisions that have contributed to the present crisis in the Sendai region of Japan.
Daniel Aldrich did a study back in 2008 of the factors that were behind the decisions to place the reactors:
“While a large literature exists on the siting of controversial facilities, few theories about spatial location have been tested on large samples. Using a new dataset from Japan, this paper demonstrates that state agencies choose localities judged weakest in local civil society as host communities for controversial projects. In some cases, powerful politicians deliberately seek to have facilities such as nuclear power plants, dams, and airports placed in their home constituency. This paper then explores new territory: how demographic, political, and civil society factors impact the outcomes of siting attempts. It finds that the strength of local civil society impacts the probability that a proposed project will come to fruition; the greater the concentration of local civil society, the less likely state-planned projects will be completed.”
Full study here. (h/t to Chris Blattman)
As a friend pointed out when hearing of the results of this study, the idea of putting a controversial facility (like a Walmart is often perceived to be by other merchants) in a region that has the weakest civil interconnectedness is something that’s quite common here in the United States too. What does this say about the concentration of risk, in the places that are the least likely to be able to manage the “threat”? What does this say about an economic and civil model that allows, even prefers and financially rewards, such decisions?
Putting the study’s finding positively, it would appear that communities with the strongest sense of civic life, the greater emotional connectedness, will be the ones most likely to respond successfully to challenges. (That’s certainly been my observation as a priest who ministers in an Anglo and a Hispanic community here in the Southwest. The Hispanic community has been much less affected by the Great Recession, in large part because they instinctively pool their resources in response to calamity.)
More importantly, what should the Church’s response be going forward?