Survey: Oil less popular than nuclear power in U.S.

Americans don't exactly like nuclear power, but they like oil even less.

Concerns about global warming, high oil prices and worldwide political turmoil have made oil the least popular fuel in the U.S., according to a survey from MIT and Knowledge Networks. In the survey, 74 percent of respondents said that they want to see decreased use of oil, up from 56 percent in 2002.

In the previous 2002 survey, nuclear was the least popular fuel. The 2007 survey polled 1,200 adults nationwide.

Nuclear, in fact, has gained a little bit of acceptance. The 2007 survey found that 35 percent of those polled said they wanted to see an increase in nuclear power, a rise from 28 percent in 2002. The rise was attributed to concerns about global warming, according to professor Stephen Ansolabehere, who oversaw the project.

Still, nearly 40 percent oppose the proposed storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and only 28 percent said they agreed with the proposition that nuclear waste can be stored for long periods of time safely.

The survey further asked people how much they would pay--in the form of higher utility bills--to counteract global warming. The average answer is $10 a month. In reality, the answer needs to be closer to $25 a month, according to Ansolabehere.

[James Aach]

The unknown nuclear

One area where nuclear power has a lot of problems in the public arena is that it's fairly mysterious to those outside of the industry - their own contact with it is what they see in movies and on TV (most of it rather silly) and read in short articles. This is not to say that understanding means acceptance, but we'll do a much better job deciding our energy future if we really understand our energy present.

I've worked in the US nuclear industry over twenty years, and have written a novel designed to provide an entertaining insider's perspective on atomic power, the good and the bad. "Rad Decision" is available at no cost to readers online at http://RadDecision.blogspot.com and is also now in paperback. It has been endorsed by Stewart Brand, the internet pioneer, futurist and founder of "The Whole Earth Catalog".