News Article

Feb 8, 2012

Category: Environmental Issues

UK Supports Nuclear

by Cedric Chin

Off the coast of Japan, an undersea earthquake occurred on Friday, 11 March 2011. It was the most powerful earthquake recorded to have ever hit Japan and the 5^th most powerful since records began [1]. The earthquake combined with the effects of, at times, 40.5m high tsunamis, caused immense social, economic, technological, environmental and political damage to Japan. What became of the incident was tragic, not only did earthquake and tsunami damage cause the death of thousands, but Japan were faced with further crisis as it had to react quickly to the leak of radiation which was to ensue, as a result of the meltdown of three of its nuclear reactors. Understandably, the world was gripped, and support for nuclear dwindled.

Yet in just less than a year after the incident, how is it that in the poll results of three different market research agencies, the UK support for nuclear is on the rise: and in some cases, eclipsing that of years before the incident. This is most intriguing considering that for the most part of the 2011 year, and more or less in most cases today, the rest of the world still retains its negative sentiment towards nuclear energy – post the Fukushima incident. It is as if the UK has reflected and lifted its downbeat feelings towards nuclear – despite the worldwide display which showed the risk involved when using nuclear – and the UK now, is in full support.

The Polls

The poll results being discussed here come from the following: The British Association Poll (UK Specific - August 2011) [2]; Ipsos MORI (UK Specific - December 2011) [3]; and GlobeScan (World - July - September 2011) [4].

The following reflect the responses gathered, and are organised into categories. The two UK specific polls were collated together under the categories: General Support, Support for New Nuclear Power Stations and, Gender and Demography.

The GlobeScan world poll results, being isolated on their own.

General Support

In two different reports, there is an overall favourability in support of nuclear power:

In the British Association’s poll: 41% believe that the benefits of nuclear outweighed the risks; compared to a previous 38% in 2010.
In the Ipsos MORI poll: Overall favourability towards the nuclear energy industry recovered to 40%, the same level as November 2010, and unfavourable opinion has slipped back to 19% from June 2011 (24%), although it is still a little above that of November 2010 (17%).

Support for New Nuclear Power Stations

More specifically, again in these two UK based polls, similar results ensued when asked about building new power stations.

In the British Association’s poll: Support increased substantially to 23% (2011) from 9% in 2005.

Within Ipsos MORI: Support for new nuclear plants to replace those being shut down has recovered from its June low of 36% and risen to a new peak of 50%, three points above the November 2010 level. At the same time, opposition has fallen from 28% in June to 20%. Overall net support for new build is now above that of November 2010.

Gender and Demography

It is interesting to note that, despite the differences in how these polls were collected, both polls showed favourability in support from men:

In the British Association’s poll: Men were more than twice as likely as women to be in favour of nuclear, the poll suggests. 53% of men were in favour compared to 21% of women. Instead, a third of women want future energy investment to be in solar power where a similar proportion of men were in favour of investing in atomic energy.
Within Ipsos Mori: There were differences between ages, sexes and socio-economic groups. 62% of men support nuclear power, compared to 39% of women. While 36% of 16-24 year olds support the technology, 60% of all those over 55 do the same. Lastly, 68% of those in the wealthiest socio-economic group support nuclear, with only 38% of those in the DE group following suit.

Globe

The rest of the world, on average, believes that boosting efficiency and renewables would be enough to meet their needs: for instance, replacing most coal and nuclear energy generation (See above). In the UK (and the US, China and Pakistan), there was support for building new reactors; 33% to 37% (See below).
Countries without operating reactors also showed strong support.

Results

The results were surprising considering the Fukushima circumstances: with the chairman of GlobeScan also acknowledging that the UK and US public view to be quite noteworthy [4]. But, nevertheless, despite the surprise in results, there is also a consistency amongst them. And this must be taken into consideration.

Robert Knight, director at the Ipsos MORI Reputation Centre, offers this opinion: "After the body blow suffered by British public opinion following the Fukushima incident, support for nuclear new build has recovered robustly in just a few months. It seems the public see Japan as a long way away and memories are short, but concerns about the future security of energy supply closer to home are ongoing and persistent [5]."

But this surely can’t be true. If in a global poll (although by a different pollster), other nations continued to show a lack of support for the industry; for example, pro-nuclear France – which is almost just as far from Japan as the UK. And not to forget, the remnants of local Chernobyl, was surely to reside in the minds of UK residents: a nuclear accident which occurred in nearby Ukraine, and is often the subject of case studie within schools and universities alike.

Damian Carrington, head of Environment for the Guardian, offers this suggestion: Nuclear power operators work extremely close with government in the UK – far too closely when it came to the public relations response to Fukushima. High-level employees of the nuclear energy companies are lent to government for free for years at a time. So it would not be that surprising if the official national support for nuclear power helped rebuild public confidence [5].

But, is this enough? Another explanation put forth by Carrington, and similar to the latter concern which Knight raised: is that, the UK is starting to come to the conclusion that nuclear energy could help with the transition from unsustainable to sustainable, lowering emissions whilst still managing to supply the energy demands of the UK. But why would this be UK specific?

Well, does this mean that the government did have a role in changing nuclear depictions? Or, alternatively, is the average resident more concerned about future energy supply? If they are, then, why do they see nuclear as the more viable option in comparison to renewables – which too garners a lot of public attention.

The debate with regard to nuclear energy remains a complex one. Furthermore, none of these polls will give us the answer.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster

[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14847875

[3] http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/2903/Nuclear-Energy-Update-Poll.aspx

[4] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15864806

[5] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2012/jan/18/nuclear-power-public-support-opinion-fukushima

Return