Nearly a year after a tsunami and station blackout devastated four reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, public support for nuclear power in the U.S. remains strong, with two thirds of respondents in a recent poll voicing their support for nuclear power.
The Nuclear Energy Institute commissioned a survey of 1,000 adults Feb. 17-19. The poll, conducted by Bisconti Research and GfK Roper, found that 64 percent of respondents favored the use of nuclear power, compared to 62 percent in a survey conducted in September. The poll’s margin of sampling error was 3 percent.
In the most recent poll, 81 percent of respondents “believe nuclear energy will be important to meeting America’s electricity needs in the years ahead,” according to an NEI release. Among respondents, 58 percent said the U.S “should definitely build more nuclear plants in the future.” Sixty five percent said they would accept construction of an additional reactor at the nuclear plant nearest them, with support higher in the Southeast and Midwest.
“Attitudes toward nuclear energy stand at approximately the level seen in a large number of the surveys in the past decade, but a bit below a pre-Fukushima peak,” Bisconti Research President Ann Bisconti said in the release. “The weight of public opinion toward nuclear energy and the building of new nuclear power plants continues to be favorable.”