by Guest

contribution by Leo

New polling sheds some light both on where the public stand in terms of different power options, and on the impact of arguments that make nuclear seem more attractive.

The polls are useful for understanding public attitudes towards nuclear power in two ways: they indicate how people regard nuclear at the moment, and they also help show the impact of arguments for nuclear power.

At a basic level, nuclear power is currently pretty much the least popular form of power generation in the UK.



1. When asked favourability towards different sources, it comes in at the bottom of the pile – around the same place as both coal and gas.

2. There is strong local opposition to the construction of new nuclear power stations. While three in four claim they would support wind farms being built within five miles of their home, only a quarter say the same about a new nuclear station.

However, the polls also show that this opposition is relatively soft. The arguments for nuclear power can change these attitudes quite strongly.

The lesson appears to be that nuclear is seen as a source of energy production that doesn’t contribute to climate change – and this is a strength, so nuclear does better relative to other sources when this is raised as an issue.

3. The other part of the argument is around energy security: this is just as effective in making the case for nuclear as climate change is.



So, nuclear starts is initially pretty unpopular, but has the potential to become much more accepted if the case is made based on tackling climate change and improving energy security.

4. But to be clear, this doesn’t overcome all doubts. Both of these arguments are challenged when nuclear is put directly in comparison with renewable sources, which remain far more popular until the case has been made convincingly that all other options have been exhausted.

So the results appear to show that there is a case (tackling climate change and improving energy security) that makes nuclear more accepted than other non-renewables (of course, I haven’t explored the impact of the pro-coal and pro-gas arguments…).

But nuclear would still only be grudgingly tolerated, not embraced like renewables, and there will be a powerful local resistance to any new plants.

This poll was carried out by Understanding Risk/MORI, and shows some similar results to one by EDF Energy/ YouGov a few months ago, which appeared to show that resistance to new nuclear power stations has decreased.

As we can see, support for nuclear power still pales in comparison to more renewable sources.

Click on the graphs for the full version. A longer version of this article is here.