Bisconti: The highest levels of nuclear support were found by the 2025 National Nuclear Energy Public Opinion Survey by Bisconti Research, conducted between May 28 and June 8 with a sample of 1,000 adults. According to the survey, 72 percent of respondents favored the use of nuclear energy, and 28 percent opposed it, compared with 77 percent and 23 percent, respectively, in 2024. In this year’s survey, 29 percent of participants strongly favored and 6 percent strongly opposed nuclear energy.
The Bisconti survey indicated that 64 percent of respondents agreed that the United States “should definitely build more nuclear power plants in the future,” with 36 percent disagreeing with that statement.
It also reported the levels of importance that participants gave to eight different “considerations for the way electricity is produced.” The order in which these considerations were judged to be “extremely important” were as follows: reliable and affordable electricity (63 percent), clean air (61 percent), efficiency (52 percent), good jobs (49 percent), energy security (48 percent), climate change solution (46 percent), and energy independence (43 percent).
The survey also showed that nuclear energy was seen as the most reliable clean energy source by 30 percent of participants. Only solar energy was ranked higher, with 41 percent rating it as the most reliable clean energy source.
Gallup: According to Gallup, which conducted its annual environment poll between March 3 and March 16, 61 percent of respondents supported the use of nuclear energy. That result is just one percentage point below the highest level of nuclear support ever found by Gallup, in 2010. Of that 61 percent, 29 percent “strongly” supported nuclear, and 32 percent “somewhat” supported nuclear. A total of 35 percent of respondents opposed nuclear energy.
As the Gallup report stated in its survey summary, “The increase [in support for nuclear energy] is driven largely by Republicans and independents and reflects a growing openness to nuclear power as a low-emission energy source.”
Pew: The Pew Research Center conducted a survey of 5,085 U.S. adults between April 28 and May 4. It found that 59 percent of respondents favored the use of more nuclear energy and the building of more nuclear power plants.
Support for nuclear was found by the surveys to have increased substantially among both Democrats and Republicans since 2016. Among Republican and Republican-leaning respondents, 69 percent favored increased development of nuclear energy now, compared with 51 percent in 2016. Among Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents, 52 percent favored increased development of nuclear energy now, compared with 38 percent in 2016.
Savanta/Radiant: Savanta, a market research firm, conducted a public opinion survey about nuclear energy on behalf of Radiant Energy Group. Conducted between August 30 and September 13, 2024, the Savanta/Radiant survey included 23,796 adult participants in 23 states.
This survey found the lowest level of nuclear support, with 40 percent of respondents saying that they backed nuclear energy and 27 percent saying they opposed it. Results by every state represented in the survey showed net support for nuclear energy, with the highest levels of support found in Georgia, Texas, and Arizona. More than 40 percent of respondents in most of the surveyed states favored the building of new nuclear power plants.
In additional findings regarding climate change, the Savanta/Radiant survey indicated that 37 percent of respondents believed that nuclear energy creates no carbon emissions or only low levels of carbon emissions—while 43 percent saw nuclear energy as creating moderate or high levels of carbon emissions.
Radiant’s summary of the survey results noted that “nuclear may act as a safeguard for climate action, providing insurance against potential backlash to net-zero goals. Among climate action skeptics, nuclear energy has the highest level of net support (+32%) of any clean energy technology, ahead of gas with carbon capture and storage (+13%) and large-scale solar farms (+13%).”
