Americans continue to support building more nuclear power plants, but at a lower level than they did a year ago — and according to the latest Economist/YouGov Poll they wouldn’t want the plants in their own community.
Still, despite the evacuations and the fires and radiation released from a Japanese nuclear plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, nearly half the American public supports building more nuclear power plants and a majority sees nuclear power’s benefit as a way of reducing dependence on foreign oil outweighing the risk of an accident.
However, support for building more nuclear power plants has dropped in the last year. Now, 47% would build more plants, down from 60% last March. 36% disapprove of building more plants, up 10 points from a year ago.
But Americans don’t necessarily want to live anywhere near a nuclear power plant. By 51% to 36%, they would disapprove of building nuclear plants in their own communities.
There are differences between Republicans and Democrats on nuclear power, just as there are on many other topics. Nearly seven in ten Republicans approve of building more nuclear plants, just over a third of Democrats do. And almost half of Republicans would favor having a plant built in their community. Only one in four Democrats would.
But the differences between men and women are nearly as large. 57% of men favor building more nuclear plants compared to 36% of women. 46% of men would have them in their communities. Women are more likely to oppose building more plants, and twice as many women oppose locating them in their communities as would approve of that.
Would you approve or disapprove of building more nuclear power plants to generate electricity?
| Party | Gender | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Strongly approve | 20% | 9% | 32% | 27% | 28% | 11% |
Somewhat approve | 27% | 26% | 35% | 28% | 29% | 25% |
Somewhat disapprove | 17% | 19% | 12% | 17% | 16% | 18% |
Strongly disapprove | 19% | 27% | 7% | 17% | 13% | 24% |
Not sure | 17% | 18% | 14% | 10% | 13% | 21% |
Would you approve or disapprove if a nuclear power plant to generate electricity were built in your community?
| Party | Gender | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Strongly approve | 15% | 7% | 20% | 23% | 21% | 9% |
Somewhat approve | 21% | 18% | 28% | 25% | 25% | 17% |
Somewhat disapprove | 16% | 15% | 18% | 15% | 15% | 16% |
Strongly disapprove | 35% | 47% | 21% | 29% | 28% | 41% |
Not sure | 14% | 15% | 14% | 9% | 12% | 16% |
One year ago, a majority of Democrats favored building more nuclear power. So did nearly half of women.
Nearly all respondents (98%) were aware of the crisis in Japan. One in ten said they had relatives or close friends in Japan. But there is a lack of trust in how the Japanese government has reported on the situation: by more than two to one, Americans believe the Japanese government has not told the public what it knows about the damage to the nuclear facilities. Not that Americans believe that the U.S. government would do much better. Asked whether the U.S. government would do a better or worse job if a nuclear accident happened here, 42% said it would do about the same as the Japanese government is doing. The number saying the U.S. would do a better job was only slightly higher than those saying it would do worse (21% to 17%).
Americans believe that the United States has a responsibility to help Japan now, and rank the recent earthquake and tsunami there as the most serious of a number of recent natural disasters. But as in the past, more say the U.S. has a responsibility to help when the disaster is closer to home — for example, Hurricane Katrina and last year’s Gulf oil spill.
Immediately following each of these events, how much responsibility do you think the United States government had or has for assisting those affected by each of these events?
| A great deal | Some | Only a little | None | Not sure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The 2004 Christmas tsunami in South Asia | 14% | 41% | 21% | 11% | 12% |
Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast | 78% | 13% | 3% | 2% | 4% |
The 2010 floods in Panama | 9% | 38% | 24% | 16% | 13% |
The 2010 oil spill in the Gulf Coast | 69% | 20% | 4% | 2% | 5% |
The 2010 Haiti earthquake | 23% | 43% | 17% | 10% | 8% |
The 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami | 23% | 45% | 17% | 8% | 7% |
President Barack Obama gets high marks for his response to the Japan earthquake and tsunami. 59% approve of his handling of the U.S. response, and only 23% disapprove.
The President continues to fare less well with the public when they are asked to judge his overall performance. In this week’s poll, just 44% approve, while 48% disapprove.
Image source: flickr ( tobo )
