Therefore, Swedes’ support for nuclear power is record high

– High electricity prices, problems with the electricity system, even in Europe, says Mattias Lantz, researcher at Uppsala University and chairman of the Analysis Group, as an explanation for the fact that nuclear power is sailing in an opinion poll.

The analysis group has been making recurring measurements, since 2006, of Swedish nuclear power opinion. The group describes itself as an independent network but is financed by the nuclear power companies.

Half want to build new

Just over half, 56 percent, of the 1,000 respondents in the Novus survey, conducted in the last week of March, say they are in favor of building new nuclear power when needed. This is a statistically significant increase from 46 percent in the autumn. 28 percent answer that the current nuclear power plants will be used, but do not want to see any new ones. Only 10 percent think that nuclear power should be phased out through political decisions, down from 14 percent in the November survey.

Mattias Lantz points out that many different things have affected the view of energy issues in general and nuclear power in particular in the last six months, most recently with the Russian attacks on a nuclear power plant in Ukraine which quickly diluted the concern about radioactive emissions.

– We might therefore have expected that the positive view of nuclear power would even go back, but it did not. There have been many currents that have gone in different directions, says Lantz.

The right is for

Over time, the increasingly pro-nuclear opinion has steadily increased in recent years. In 2018, only 30 percent wanted to see new nuclear power. Then 20 percent wanted to phase out nuclear power.

The climate issue also plays into the hands of nuclear power, according to the answers in the survey. Two out of three answer “Yes, completely” or “Yes, to a large extent” to the question: “Do you think that nuclear power can be a means of meeting the climate goals?” This is a slightly higher proportion than in the previous study. 18 percent answer no to that question.

In the political debate, it is the bourgeois parties that want to invest in new nuclear power. In the Novus survey, it is also clear that it is men, residents of western Sweden, employees in the private sector and M and SD sympathizers who would like to see more of the energy type.

Women on the left are less enthusiastic, in general, but even among voters on the left scale, support for nuclear power has increased, according to the survey.

The political debate has recently become more polarized. It has to a greater extent been about either nuclear power or wind power.

– It is a destructive discussion, we need every kilowatt hour we can get, says Mattias Lantz.