Gallup: For First Time, Majority in U.S. Oppose Nuclear Energy.

[ProgressiveCanadian]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/190064/first-time-majority-oppose-nuclear-energy.aspx?g_source=Politics&g_medium=lead&g_campaign=tiles

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Odd really. You would think opposition would have sharply peaked after Fuukushima, then remained stagnant or declined afterwards. Ah well, it's not like new nuke plants are being made faster than the old ones will be closed anyway (even if the public was 90% in favour) so it doesn't really matter in the long run.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Low information voters are becoming the norm.

[TJ in Oregon]

It's like the Trump campaign made people's opinions go awful on every issue.

[Ebsy]

Shameful.

[Brewer]

smh

[ElectionsGuy]

What the hell happened? That's such a sharp change.

[Simfan34]

It's like the Trump campaign made people's opinions go awful on every issue.

Sad! While, as a strong supporter of nuclear energy, I have to admit current market conditions are favorable to both natural gas, and (to a lesser extent) solar and wind, that, firstly, does not change the long term economics at work (gas prices will go up eventually), and, secondly, probably isn't what explains the shift in public opinion.

[Koharu]

Wow. This makes me very sad.

[Simfan34]

Low information voters are becoming the norm.

Becoming?

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

Not good... I hope the Americans don't end up like Australians on this issue. The green lobby is WAY too powerful in Australia

[traininthedistance]

What the hell happened? That's such a sharp change.

Low gas prices, most likely.  Many people are likely preconditioned to find nuclear power scary, but when fossil fuels are more expensive, their desire for more energy production outweighs their natural squeamishness.  Petroleum and natural gas is dirt cheap right now, so they don't see a need to support nukes.

[Intell]

Horrible.

[dead0man]

The hippies long term PR campaign against it have won.  I hate hippies.

[Sir Mohamed]

Good news.

[Stm85]

This is a bad sign. Nuclear power is one of the few fossil fuel alternatives that is actually viable on the free market.

[Sumner 1868]

I wonder why they only began this question in 1994? I bet if there had been polling in the late 1970s and 1980s, you would have seen much strong majorities opposed to nuclear power than right now.

[Goldwater]

Disappointing.

[Lief 🗽]

Good job Bernie! Awful that the deranged left promotes this anti-science nonsense.

[DINGO Joe]

The decline was sharpest among Republicans, maybe it's a "I only want to burn coal because Obamies against it"  thing.

It should be noted that all of the 5.5 GW of nuclear under construction are in the region (Southeast) mainly served by Appalachian coal, so there go even more WV coal jobs.

On a tangent, I have a really cool 1930s full page newspaper ad that a coal company took out opposing the TVA because it would cost Pennsylvania miners their jobs.

[Illiniwek]

No!!

[Vosem]

This is obviously terrible news, but as someone pointed out upthread it probably has been this way in the past.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I guess the pro-nuke propaganda isn't having much of an effect anymore.

The future is in green energy - not nuclear.

[traininthedistance]

I guess the pro-nuke propaganda isn't having much of an effect anymore.

The future is in green energy - not nuclear.

Compared to fossil fuels, nuclear energy is green.  Traditional fission reactors aren't actually the world's best long-term solution (the nuke baseleoad paradigm doesn't necessarily play the best with flexible next-fen grids, and there's only so much uranium in the earth's crust), but they have an important and positive role to play in the short and medium term.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Yeah, I'd be highly surprised if hippies have anything to do with this (hippies infamously have no way of changing anything, especially the broader public mood). This is the effect of low energy prices across the board making a) nuclear seem a pointlessly expensive venture and b) the "energy crisis" seem less potent.

Like if I was polled, I would say I would be opposed and it's not because I'm terrified nuclear energy will turn me into a frog. The only real way nuclear can be integrated into the sort of grid that is needed in the 21st century are a) non-uranium fission based and b) modular. And really even then not entirely necessary.