Before looking in more detail at the poll, let me make very clear that I think the debate over nuclear power is a fiendishly complex one. It encompasses the risks of rising carbon dioxide, the strength of political will behind renewables like wind and solar, whether the true cost of nuclear can be calculated and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. I don't think there's an easy formula that combines all these factors and into which you can feed data and get the "right" answer. You have to make your own judgements about some things, as I've written before, and one of those things is public opinion.
This is a proper poll, across a wide range of countries and details of the poll methodology is at the end of this post. I am also promised a link to the full data, which I have only as a file. I'll add that when it arrives.
So what stands out? The most anti-nuclear nations in the poll, at about 80% against, were Italy, Germany and Mexico. Only three of the 24 countries had majorities that favoured nuclear power: India (61%), Poland (57%) and the US (52%). The UK and Sweden were split 50-50 within the uncertainty cited.
In France, where most of the electricity is produced by nuclear, 67% opposed it, the same percentage as in coal-rich Australia. Perhaps surprisingly, 42% of people in Japan, still recovering from the huge tremor that wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant, remain supportive of nuclear power. Read the full report here.
Source: Damian Carrington, guardian.co.uk.
