The Softened Attitude of British Citizens Regarding Nuclear Energy

British Citizens' Shift in Awareness and the Government's Return to Nuclear Energy

The British government has decided that nuclear energy generation will play a central role in policy for decreasing greenhouse gas. That it was able to reach such a decision is in large part due to the softening attitude of British citizens towards nuclear power generation. We search for the causes of this through survey results. We present the results of a joint survey conducted by MORI, a UK research company, and the UK Nuclear Industry Association.

As the graph (refer to the PDF file) indicates, 12% responded that "global warming" represents the most serious issue, a percentage that is on par with those who chose "terrorism" (13%). In addition, those pointing to global warming as the gravest issue increased from 4% in 2004 to 12% in 2005, an 8% increase.

Among environmental problems, British citizens were also most interested in global warming (34%), which was followed distantly by general pollution (17%) and recycling (12%). The reason for the rapid recent increase in public interest concerning global warming is due to the realization of scientists' climate change predictions (such as the heat waves) in the last five years. The threat posed by global warming is considered to be comparatively more serious than the threat produced by nuclear energy.

Next, we take a look at the areas that British citizens think should be considered regarding energy/electricity power production. The highest response was the impact on the environment (52%), followed by the impact on global warming (48%) and renewable issues (32%). In the 2004 ranking, the impact on the environment topped the list (51%), followed by cost (40%) and the effect on global warming (37%). It thus becomes clear that the importance attached to global warming is rapidly increasing while the priority given to cost is decreasing. In response to questions about specifically preferred methods of electricity generation, those supporting nuclear power were in third place (33%) behind wind energy (54%) and solar energy (52%), and ahead of thermal energy (gas 23%, oil 10%, coal 8%) and biomass (11%).

Conclusion

Japan has seen very few tornadoes in the past. Since 2005, however, tornadoes have been a frequent occurrence, signaling that climate change has finally begun in Japan. In December 2005, a tornado derailed a train in Shonai Town (Yamagata Prefecture), killing five. Similarly, three died after a train derailed from a tornado in Nobeoka City (Miyazaki Prefecture) in September 2006. As recently as November 2006, a tornado in Saroma Town (Hokkaido) took nine lives. Moreover, the mild winter this year has created a general public awareness that global warming is steadily advancing.

For the citizens of Japan, global warming has not been an immediate and familiar problem compared to in Europe, and as such the level of interest has not been particularly high. As climate change becomes pronounced with the tornados and mild winter, however, general concern regarding global warming is heightening at a rapid rate. Though an environment for accepting nuclear energy as a countermeasure to global warming is emerging, the time has also come to evaluate the effectiveness of these countermeasures from the perspective of not only the potential bright side, but the dark side of nuclear energy generation (such as terrorism and the disposal of radioactive waste) as well.