Fukushima chilled U.S. opinions on nuclear power

47 percent of Americans surveyed said in 2011 that they supported the building of new nuclear power plants.

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Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience

Wed, Mar 14 2012 at 7:46 AM

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Photo: Alain Jocard/AFP

The nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima power plant after the Japanese tsunami a year ago has made Americans more leery of nuclear power, according to a Yale University report.

Surveys taken in May 2011 after the Japan tsunami and subsequent nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima revealed more negativity toward nuclear power than surveys taken in 2005 before the disaster. Support for new nuclear power plants also slipped 6 percentage points from 2010.

"Fukushima was a 'focusing event' — a crisis that generates massive media and public attention and ripple effects well beyond the disaster itself," wrote Anthony Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, in an email statement.

In national surveys, Leiserowitz and his colleagues asked Americans to say the first word or phrase that came to mind when thinking of nuclear power. They then sorted the responses and compared them with the answers to the same question asked in 2005.

They found that free associations with the word "disaster" shot up in 2011, from 21 percent in 2005 to 29 percent after the Fukushima disaster. People were also much more likely to say nuclear power was "bad," from 13 percent in 2005 to 24 percent in 2011.

About 12 percent of people associated "nuclear" with "energy," down from 16 percent in 2005. "Nuclear war" came to mind far less often in 2011 when 3 percent of respondents associated "nuclear" with "war," compared with 15 percent who said the same in 2005.

All told, Americans did not support nuclear plants very strongly post-Fukushima, with only 47 percent saying in 2011 that they supported the building of new plants. Even fewer were willing to see nuclear plants in their own backyards: Only 33 percent said they'd be happy to see new nuclear plants in their own area.

The findings appear in the report Public Support for Climate & Energy Policies in May 2011.

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Comments: 2

Jim Mar 15 2012 at 11:02 AM

Atomic energy is the very core of nature so it's automatically "green." The health hypocrisy of the anti-nuclear crowd is unreal. Since 1942 when the first nuclear reactor fired up over a hundred thousand members of the public and workers worldwide have been killed in the gas and oil and coal industry accidents -- and over two million people daily tolerate pollution on our lungs incurred by such production, yet Greens shrug at that and are howling pitchforks after a power source that since 1942 has

.... More

killed less people than a single plane crash -- even in its WORST accidents -- and most of that from Chernobyl. "Eco friendly" inefficient and land despoiling wind and solar aren't going to cut it, as China and Vietnam and India finally found out and which even Japan will shortly, despite the agenda to smear and demonize nuclear energy by a "fair" green-slanted media for all matter of specious reasons. Nuclear professional Rod Adams of AtomicInsights com has yet had a media darling anti-nuclear peer who'll debate the merits of "alternative" energy vs nuclear. One must wonder why. James Greenidge Queens NY

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Andrew Grimes Mar 15 2012 at 3:48 AM

Here in Japan the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, where 3 of the 6 nuclear reactors went into meltdown and where the spent fuel rods in the damaged pool room of a 4th reactor is still at risk to further quakes, has spurred companies to redouble their efforts develop clean alternative energy supplies. Already one major Japanese company has begun work on a windfarm facility off the Fukushima coast. Around the world it has spurred so much debate about sustainable and clean

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energy not only for the present but for our children's and their children's safe and clean futures. With only 2 of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors working now less than 7% of electricity comes from nuclear power reactors. The people of Japan are over 80% opposed to nuclear power and by the summer we will be living in a completely nuclear free country. Sales of LED lighting units, solar panels are sky-rocketing and homeowners who lived with the voluntary reduction in the use of electrical devices of all kinds within the home were a major part of reducing electricity demand by up to 30% compared to previous years. Homeowners have seen the sense of sustainable energy. So Japan is going to be nuclear free. Please do not use Fukushima or the suffering of the over 2,000,000 million people of Fukushima Prefecture to promote the nuclear industry. Oil and coal will go down in history as causes of global warming. For the future of our children and our children's children, not only in Japan but worldwide and in your back yards, focus on sustainable clean energy production Global warming will have to be tackled by genuine commitment to clean sustainable energy production. Kind regards from Tokyo

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