Majority of Poles support construction of nuclear power plants

The development of nuclear power plants (NPP) in Poland was supported by 86.4 percent of respondents to a recent poll with only 10.2 percent voicing opposition to the plans.

The survey, conducted for the Ministry of Climate and Environment, also found that 71.6 percent of those polled would agree to an being built near where they live, with 25.5 percent against such a development and 2.9 percent unable to say.

The ministry reported in a Thursday press release that the results were the best in the history of the research, which has been conducted annually since 2012, and that positive responses were up 12 percentage points (pps) year on year. The number of respondents prepared to have an NPP in their immediate vicinity was up 14 pps compared to the 2021 result, the ministry said.

Close to 90 percent of pollees said nuclear power was beneficial in the fight against climate change and more than 90 percent said that nuclear power in Poland would increase the country's energy security. Over 90 percent had also heard of plans to develop Poland's first nuclear power station.

"The results of the research confirm that Poles are ever more aware that nuclear energy can ensure energy security," Climate Minister Anna Moskwa was quoted in the release as saying. "Such high support is not only a result of Russia's attack on Ukraine, or of Poland's choice of American nuclear technology, but also of the 'Meet the Atomics' (Poznaj Atomickich - PAP) information campaign."

The research was conducted by the Dane company in November 2022 on a representative national sample of 2,112 Poles between 15 and 75 years of age.