Majority of Americans Support Increased Nuclear Power in the United States

Diablo Canyon, California's only remaining operating nuclear power plant, is seeking to extend its operations beyond its planned 2025 shutdown. (George Rose/Getty Images)

According to a May Pew Research Center survey, the majority of American adults remain supportive of expanding nuclear power in the country. Overall, 56 percent say they support building new nuclear power plants to generate electricity. That proportion is statistically unchanged from last year.

But the future of large-scale nuclear power in the United States is uncertain. While Congress recently passed bipartisan legislation aimed at easing the nuclear power industry’s financial and regulatory woes, reactor closures continue to steadily outpace new construction.

Americans remain more likely to favor expanding solar (78%) and wind (72%) than nuclear. Yet while support for solar and wind has declined by double digits since 2020, largely due to declining Republican support, the share of those in favor of nuclear has increased by 13 percentage points over that period.

When asked about the federal government’s role in encouraging nuclear power production, Americans are somewhat split. Overall, more say the government should encourage (41%) nuclear power production than discourage (22%). But 36% say the government should have no influence one way or the other, according to a March 2023 Center survey.

To measure public attitudes toward the use of nuclear energy in the United States, we analyzed data from Pew Research Center surveys. Most of the data come from our survey of 8,638 U.S. adults conducted from May 13 to 19, 2024.

All survey participants are members of the Centers American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel recruited through national random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all American adults have a chance of being selected. The survey is weighted to be representative of the American adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, and other categories. Learn more about ATP’s methodology.

Here are the survey questions used for this analysis, along with the responses and its methodology.

Links to related Center surveys, including their questions and methodologies, can be found throughout the article.

Additionally, we tracked the number of U.S. nuclear reactors over time by analyzing data from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Power Reactor Information System. The IAEA classifies a reactor as operational from the date it first connects to the power grid until the date it is permanently shut down. Reactors that are in temporary shutdowns are still classified as operational. Annual totals exclude reactors that shut down that year.

Opinions by gender

Attitudes toward nuclear power generation have long differed by gender.

In the May survey, men remain much more likely than women to support building new nuclear power plants to generate electricity in the United States (70% vs. 44%). This trend is true among adults of both political parties.

Opinions on nuclear power also differ by gender globally, according to a Center survey conducted from fall 2019 to spring 2020. In 18 of the 20 locations surveyed around the world (including the United States), men were more likely than women to favor increased use of nuclear power as a source of household energy.

Views by party

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support expanding nuclear power to generate electricity in the United States. Two-thirds of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they support the idea, compared with about half of Democrats and Democratic-leaning people.

Republicans have supported nuclear power to a greater extent than Democrats every time the question has been asked since 2016.

The partisan gap in favor of nuclear energy (18 points) is smaller than that observed for other types of energy, including fossil fuel sources such as coal mining (48 points) and offshore oil and gas drilling (47 points).

Yet Americans in both parties now view nuclear energy more positively than they did at the beginning of the decade. While Democrats remain split on the issue (49% for, 49% against), the share of those who favor expanding the energy source has increased by 12 points since 2020. Republican support has increased by 14 points over that period.

While younger Republicans tend to be more supportive of expanding domestic renewable energy sources than their older peers, the trend reverses when it comes to nuclear power. For example, Republicans under 30 are much more likely than those 65 and older to support increasing the number of solar farms in the United States (80% vs. 54%); there is a similar gap when it comes to expanding wind power. But when it comes to expanding nuclear power, Republicans under 30 are 11 percentage points less likely than older Republicans to express support (61% vs. 72%).

An Overview of American Nuclear Reactors

The United States currently has 94 nuclear reactors, including one that just began operating in Georgia this spring. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, these reactors collectively produced 18.6% of all U.S. electricity in 2023.

Nearly half of the United States' nuclear reactors (48) are in the South, while nearly a quarter (22) are in the Midwest. According to data from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there are 18 reactors in the Northeast and six in the West.

The number of U.S. nuclear reactors has been steadily declining since peaking at 111 in 1990. Nine Mile Point-1, located in Scriba, New York, is the oldest U.S. nuclear reactor still in operation. It was first connected to the power grid in November 1969. Most of the 94 current reactors began operating in the 1970s (41) or 1980s (44), according to IAEA data. (The IAEA classifies reactors as operational from the time they were first connected to the power grid until their final shutdown date.)

Over the past decade, only three new reactors have joined the nuclear fleet. Three times as many have been closed over the same period.

One of the many reasons why nuclear power projects have declined in recent decades may be the perceived dangers of nuclear accidents in the United States and abroad. For example, the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011 led the Japanese government to significantly reduce its reliance on nuclear power and prompted other countries to rethink their nuclear power plans. High construction costs and problems with storing radioactive waste are also often-cited obstacles to nuclear power development.

Yet many advocates of nuclear power say it is essential to reducing emissions from electricity generation. There has been a recent surge in interest in reviving decommissioned nuclear plants, including the infamous Three Mile Island plant and the Palisades plant, which is scheduled to close in 2022. Last year, California announced it would delay the closure of its last nuclear plant until 2030. And this summer, construction began on a new plant in Wyoming that is expected to house a state-of-the-art sodium-cooled fast reactor, pending approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Note: Here are the questions used for the analysis, along with the answers and its methodology. This is an update of an article first published on March 23, 2022.

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