- Public Support for Nuclear Energy: A record-high 77% of respondents favor nuclear energy, with 88% supporting license renewals for plants meeting safety standards and 71% in favor of building more plants, reflecting a significant shift in opinion over the past four decades.
- Knowledge Gaps and Favorability: Despite high support, a majority of respondents failed a knowledge test on nuclear energy, with only 7% demonstrating high knowledge. However, those with greater knowledge are more likely to strongly favor nuclear energy, indicating the importance of education.
- Impact of Information: Providing factual information about nuclear energy significantly increases favorability (by 12%) and decreases opposition (by 7%), highlighting the need for continued public education to address misconceptions and enhance support.
The National Nuclear Energy Public Opinion Survey conducted from April 30 to May 2, 2024, by Bisconti Research found that the favorable public opinion of nuclear energy continued at a record high for four years in a row. More than 1000 representative samples were drawn from the Quest Mindshare Online Panel of 3.5 million people in the U.S. with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
77 percent of the respondents favor nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity in the U.S. while only 23 percent oppose it. That is more than three-fourths of the U.S. public. It is a drastic change compared to four decades ago when the opinion on nuclear energy was about evenly divided among the public.
Opinions regarding license renewal and the construction of additional plants remain overwhelmingly positive, maintaining a consistent record-high level for four consecutive years.
The support for license renewal has persisted throughout the years. As of 2024, a majority (88 percent) of the public agrees that nuclear power plants meeting federal safety standards should have their licenses renewed. “On this measure, the public has always viewed nuclear power plant license renewal as similar to renewing a driver’s license—if you can drive safely, the license should be renewed,” Bisconti said. This is a signal that shows the public thinks that nuclear energy is safe to continue to operate.
Initially, less than half of the public agreed with the idea of constructing more plants. However, the support for building more nuclear power plants has grown, especially since 2021. Currently, 71 percent of the respondents think that we should build more power plants.
Despite the fact that the supporters of nuclear energy outnumber opponents by a ratio of 5 to 1 among those who hold strong views on the matter, almost two-thirds of the respondents said they somewhat favor or somewhat oppose nuclear energy. These people are fence-sitters and have not yet made up their minds.
The survey also included 10 questions to test the respondents’ knowledge of nuclear energy. The vast majority failed the knowledge test, with two-thirds of the respondents getting 3 or fewer questions correct and only 7 percent had high knowledge with 6 or more questions correct.
According to the data, it clearly indicates that people with more knowledge of nuclear energy have stronger favor toward nuclear energy “with a range of 14 percent (low knowledge group) to 70 percent (high knowledge group) who are strongly in favor”
When 12 nuclear energy facts were revealed, respondents found the information to be new and surprising. The study indicates a path forward for addressing the significant knowledge gaps that continue to exist. Facts help strengthen favorable attitudes toward nuclear energy. The favorability after reading the facts increased 12 percent with a 7 percent decrease in those opposed.
It is important to continue to promote nuclear energy and educate the public on nuclear energy. Most of the negative connotation and controversy comes from misunderstanding. The more people learn and know about nuclear energy the more they will support nuclear energy. From the survey and data, we can see that there are already many people supporting nuclear energy. We should try harder to get all the contradictory propositions off people’s minds.