77% of Americans want government loans for renewable energy, not nuclear

More than three out of four Americans (77 percent) would support “a shift of federal loan-guarantee support for energy away from nuclear reactors” in favor of wind and solar power.

Survey: Americans Not Warming Up to Nuclear Power One Year After Fukushima, Market Watch, WASHINGTON, March 7, 2012 Contrary to Industry Predictions, Reactor Disaster Seen As Having a”Lasting Chill” on Perceptions;

It’s Not All Fukushima: 3 in 5 Americans Less Supportive Due to Woes of U.S. Nuclear Industry in Last Year.

One year after the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, Americans continue to want to keep the brakes on more nuclear power in the United States, according to a major new ORC International survey conducted for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI).

To gauge any shift in public attitudes, the new survey was benchmarked
to an earlier poll carried out by ORC International in March 2011 for
CSI. Conducted February 23-26 2012, the new survey of 1,032 Americans
shows that:

Nearly six in 10 Americans (57 percent) are less supportive of
expanding nuclear power in the United States than they were before the
Japanese reactor crisis, a nearly identical finding to the 58 percent
who responded the same way when asked the same question one year ago.
This contrasts sharply with pre-Fukushima surveys by Gallup and other
organizations showing a 60 percent support level for nuclear power.
More than three out of four Americans (77 percent) say they are now
more supportive than they were a year ago “to using clean renewable
energy resources – such as wind and solar – and increased energy
efficiency as an alternative to more nuclear power in the United
States.” This finding edged up from the 2011 survey level of 76
percent.

More than three out of four Americans (77 percent) would support “a
shift of federal loan-guarantee support for energy away from nuclear
reactors” in favor of wind and solar power. This level of support was
up from the 74 percent finding in the 2011 survey.

In response to a new question in the 2012 survey, more than six in 10
Americans (61 percent) said they were less supportive of nuclear power
as a result of reports in the U.S. during 2011 and so far in 2012 of
nuclear reactors that had to be shut down due such factors as natural
disasters, equipment failure and radioactive leaks.

About two thirds (65 percent) of Americans now say they would oppose
“the construction of a new nuclear reactor within 50 miles of [their]
home.” This figure was roughly the same as the 67 percent opposition
level in the March 2011 survey.

Pam Solo, founder and president, Civil Society Institute, said: “It is
clear that Fukushima left an indelible impression on the thinking of
Americans about nuclear power. The U.S. public clearly favors a
conservative approach to energy that insists on it being safe in all
senses of the word – including the risk to local communities and
citizens. These poll findings support the need for a renewed national
debate about the energy choices that America makes.”
Peter Bradford, former member of the United States Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, former chair of the New York and Maine utility regulatory
commissions, and currently adjunct professor at Vermont Law School on
Nuclear Power and Public Policy, said: “This survey is another piece
of bad news for new nuclear construction in the U.S. For an industry
completely dependent on political support in order to gain access to
the taxpayers’ wallets (through loan guarantees and other federal
subsidies) and the consumers’ wallets (through rate guarantees to
cover even canceled plants and cost overruns), public skepticism of
this magnitude is a near fatal flaw.The nuclear industry has spent
millions on polls telling the public how much the public longs for
nuclear power. Such polls never ask real world questions linking new
reactors to rate increases or to accident risk. Fukushima has made the
links to risk much clearer in the public mind. This poll makes the
consequences of that linkage clear.”

Pollster Graham Hueber, senior researcher, ORC International, said: “I
would summarize these findings as follows: We see here a lasting chill
in how the public perceives nuclear power. The passage of one year
since the Fukushima nuclear reactor crisis in Japan has neither dimmed
concerns in the U.S. about nuclear power nor has it made Americans
more inclined to support an expanded federal focus on promoting more
nuclear reactors in the U.S.”

Robert Alvarez, senior scholar, Institute for Policy Studies, where he
is currently focused on nuclear disarmament and environmental and
energy policies, and former senior policy advisor, U.S. Secretary of
Energy, where he coordinated the effort to enact nuclear worker
compensation legislation, said: “Nuclear power remains expensive,
dangerous, and too radioactive for Wall Street. This survey shows why
the industry has no future unless the U.S. government props it up and
forces the public to bear the risks.”….
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/survey-americans-not-warming-up-to-nuclear-power-one-year-after-fukushima-2012-03-07