A worldwide poll has shown widely varying levels of support for the use of nuclear energy. A large majority in countries that use nuclear want to keep doing so, but only a few nations showed strong support for new build.
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The poll included some 23 countries and gave respondents three options for what should be done regarding the use of nuclear power plants: shut them down as soon as possible; build new ones; or keep using current plants but not build more.
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The question on nuclear was one of two on energy that were part of a larger GlobeScan questionnaire conducted by telephone or face-to-face. Half of 23,231 interviewees were asked one or other of the energy questions.
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Among the 12 polled nations already using the energy source, countries that expressed dominant anti-nuclear views were Germany, Mexico, Russia and Spain with respective shares of 52%, 43%, 43% and 55% opting to shut nuclear plants as soon as possible. Taking the opposite view were China, Pakistan, the UK and USA with dominant shares of 42%, 39%, 37% and 39% saying new nuclear power plants should be built.
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Anti-nuclear views in Russia were noted to have more than doubled since 2005 when the same question was asked, with a corresponding drop of more than half in the number of people supporting new build.
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Other countries in this sector included Brazil, France and Japan, which recorded 35%, 25% and 37% wanting nuclear plants shut down against a body of overall support of 60%, 73% and 63% choosing to either keep operating plants or build new ones. In India some 38% of people recorded no opinion with the remainder split quite evenly between the three choices.
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In total the 12 countries polled that use nuclear energy counted 61% of people as supporting continued operation or new build (39% and 22%) with 30% saying nuclear should be shut down immediately.
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The same question was also asked of people in countries not using nuclear energy: Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Philippines and Turkey.
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Among those are four that are actively preparing to a possible start in nuclear energy. The technology was most opposed in Chile (55% calling for shutdown) and Turkey (41%). Egypt, however, saw 61% overall support for continued operation and new build; Indonesia saw 51%.
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Researched and written
by 抖阴传媒在线 Nuclear News
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