Exclusive survey: Who trusts nuclear energy?

Exclusive CCTVNEWS survey reveals how the public think about nuclear safety ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit which kicks off on March 31st in Washington D.C.

The survey was commissioned by CCTVNEWS and carried out by the independent polling company Dataway. Over 2,000 people were randomly surveyed online between March 16-18. The poll covered 10 different countries, from 5 continents: China, the US, the UK, Russia, India, South Africa, Japan, Germany, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

We will be revealing the results in this article and then provide an invaluable insight into the differing attitudes that people from different countries hold not only about nuclear energy, but how much they trust governments to tell them the truth about nuclear energy. The survey also reveals people’s fears and hopes about the future.

THE FUTURE IS SAFE?

We asked people from around the world how safe they thought nuclear energy was. We also asked them whether they thought nuclear energy was the energy of the future. The two questions threw up some interesting results, even some more fascinating paradoxes.

WHO TRUST NUCLEAR ENERGY?

41% of the people surveyed around the world think nuclear energy is safe, while 53% do not think so.

The fascinating paradox is when we asked if they thought nuclear energy was the energy of the future, the exact same number who thought nuclear power was not safe, 53%, also thought it was the energy of the future.

The same also applied to the number of people who thought nuclear energy is safe, 41%, who also thought it was not the energy of the future. 6% said they were not sure about both answers.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COUNTRIES

But if we dig a little deeper into the survey it throws up fascinating differences between countries and types of people.

Respondents from Japan and Germany were the least confident in nuclear power of all ten countries, according to the findings. The results have chimed with anti-nuclear ethos in the two societies after the Fukushima incident in Japan in 2011. While the Japanese government is struggling to resume its reactors, Germany’s campaign to shut down all nuclear plants is still underway.

Respondents in China and India, on the other hand, were the most agreeable to the employment of nuclear power, showing a higher degree of trust in its safety.

SAFETY AND THE FUTURE

The survey seemed to show a clear correlation between how safe people think nuclear energy is and whether they think it is the energy of the future.

China is one of the most optimistic countries when it comes to nuclear energy, with almost 80% of those surveyed saying that it is the energy of the future. This also correlates with Chinese people thinking that nuclear energy is safe.

At the other end of the spectrum is Japan where only 20% of the population think nuclear energy is safe and less than 20% think it is the energy of the future.

MEN VS. WOMEN

While the survey results showed that there were differences between how different nationalities think about nuclear energy and safety, some of the biggest differences were not between countries but between different types of people.

Across the world women clearly have less trust in the safety of nuclear energy compared to men.

Only 33% of the women surveyed from the ten different countries think nuclear energy is safe, compared to 49% of the men surveyed.

People’s attitudes towards safety also seemed to influence how they answered the question of whether they thought nuclear energy is the energy of the future. Fewer women thought it's the energy of the future, 50%, compared to 59% of men.

LEVEL OF EDUCATION

The level of education also seemed to cause people to think differently about nuclear energy, with higher educated people being more open to nuclear energy.

Only 30% of people with only high school education (or equivalent) think nuclear energy is safe. This rises to 44% for people with a bachelor degree and 54.9% for people with a Master’s degree or higher.

WHAT THE RESULTS MEAN FOR THE SUMMIT

The survey results should make interesting reading for the world leaders as they gather for the Nuclear Security Summit. It seems that the challenge for all world leaders who want to develop nuclear energy is how they can convince women and less educated people that nuclear energy is safe?