{"id":34465,"date":"2011-03-16T12:09:54","date_gmt":"2011-03-16T17:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=34465"},"modified":"2011-10-12T00:52:37","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T05:52:37","slug":"public-perceptions-of-nuclear-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/03\/16\/public-perceptions-of-nuclear-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Perceptions of Nuclear Energy UPDATE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given the events in Japan and the ongoing concerns about the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, I just wanted to point out that the New York Times<\/em><\/a> has several very helpful images that explain the design of that type of nuclear reactor and what has happened over the last several days<\/a>. The Union of Concerned Scientists has also posted several updates on their All Things Nuclear<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

The last decade or so had shown gradually increasing public support for nuclear energy. Just a year ago a Gallup poll of 1,014 U.S. adults showed the highest level of support since they first asked about nuclear power<\/a> in 1994, with 28% saying they “strongly” and 34% saying they “somewhat” favor nuclear energy:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In November 2009, Ipsos MORI, a market research firm in the U.K., interviewed a representative sample of 2,050 people in Great Britain about their perceptions of the nuclear energy industry<\/a> (at the request of the Nuclear Industry Association). Results of the question “How favorable or unfavorable is your opinion or impression of the nuclear energy industry?”:<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Men viewed the nuclear industry more positively than women did:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the crisis in Japan has led to concerns about nuclear power in other countries; Germany, for instance, is at least temporarily shutting down all facilities built before 1980<\/a>. There is likely to be increased scrutiny of older nuclear power facilities, in particular.<\/p>\n

Sangyoub Park, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washburn University, sent in this map showing the location and age of reactors in the U.S. (via the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Though the current events in Japan would seem likely to decrease public support for nuclear energy, if the crisis at the Japanese nuclear facilities are contained with relatively little perceived harm, it’s possible we could see little long-term impact on public opinion. People might think that if a nuclear plant can be hit by an earthquake and a tsunami, suffer multiple explosions and fires, and not have a core meltdown, then they must be pretty safe. I’ll keep my eye out for polls on the subject over the next few weeks\/months.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/span><\/strong> Sangyoub found a Gallup poll released this afternoon showing that the ongoing problems controlling the damage to nuclear reactors in Japan have increased public concerns about the possibility of a nuclear disaster<\/a> in the U.S.:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This led to a dip in support for nuclear energy; the percent “somewhat” or “strongly” opposing nuclear power rose from 33% in 2010 to 38% now:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Related posts: the power of images in the environmental movement<\/a> and Chernobyl, then and now<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the events in Japan and the ongoing concerns about the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, I just wanted to point out that the New York Times has several very helpful images that explain the design of that type of nuclear reactor and what has happened over the last several days. The Union of Concerned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[126,702,55,1811,1821],"class_list":["post-34465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-disaster","tag-energy","tag-gender","tag-nation-britainthe-u-k","tag-nation-japan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34465"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40432,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34465\/revisions\/40432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}