Forty-five percent of Americans support nuclear power energy plants

Washington, DC, June 10, 2022 – A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll finds two in five Americans say they are familiar with nuclear power energy plants (43%).  They claim similar levels of familiarity with solar power plants (44%) and wind power plants (45%). Forty-five percent of Americans say they support nuclear power energy plants, with coal-fired plants (36%) and gas-fired plants (41%) garnering less support.

Half of Americans believe currently operating nuclear plants should be maintained/kept open but no new plants should be built, only 20% say all current nuclear power plants should be shut down and no new plants should be built. Even among those who say they oppose relying on nuclear power plants for electricity, 56% are okay with keeping currently operating plants open and just not building new ones.

Among those who support relying on nuclear power energy plants for American electricity, the most common reason given is that it is a low-cost way to produce energy (49%). Among those who oppose it, the most common reason is the risk of nuclear meltdowns/accidents (69%).

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between June 1-2, 2022. For this survey, a sample of 1,004 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. 

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

Annaleise Lohr
Director, US
Public Affairs
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos is the world’s third-largest Insights and Analytics company, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people.

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