Consensus-Based Public Acceptance and Mapping of Nuclear Energy Investments Using Spherical and Pythagorean Fuzzy Group Decision Making Approaches

The purpose of the study is to identify the ways to improve the public acceptance for nuclear energy investment in energy importing countries. In this framework, 4 different factors are identified that have an influence on this situation. After that, consensus model is applied for obtaining the fuzzy preference relations at the most consistency level. Next, the criteria are weighted by using DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) methodology based on the Spherical fuzzy sets. Additionally, another evaluation has also been made by considering the Pythagorean fuzzy sets to check the consistency and coherency of the analysis results. It is identified that the results of both Spherical and Pythagorean fuzzy sets are almost the same. This situation gives information about the consistency of the analysis results. Also, sensitivity analysis is also applied by using the different values of $\delta $ with 4 cases. It is determined that there is significant coherency in the consensus-based group decision-making process. The findings indicate that security conditions play the most crucial role to improve the public acceptance for nuclear energy investments in energy importing countries. In addition, it is also identified that economic benefit and environmental issues also have importance influence on this situation. It is recommended that countries should be able to convince their citizens that nuclear energy is safe. Within this context, necessary measures should be taken for security in nuclear power plants and this situation should be clearly explained to citizens. It is obvious that priority should be mainly given to the security issues to improve public perception of nuclear energy investments in energy importing countries. One of the issues most worried by the public is the possibility of an explosion of the nuclear reactor. Hence, for this purpose, the nuclear power plant should be open to international inspection.