Decades of staunch public opposition to nuclear energy fades as acceptance grows in light of global warming

Public opinion on nuclear power has shifted dramatically in the last two years, as the energy source is increasingly viewed as a way to mitigate climate change, reports Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

A Gallup survey conducted for the newspaper indicated a majority supports nuclear energy as a means to reduce CO2 emissions.

In a similar survey in 2007, only a quarter of respondents accepted the use of energy produced by nuclear power plants. The latest survey showed 54 percent in favour.

‘Concern about the climate has risen so markedly that it has overtaken opposition to nuclear power plants,’ said Lars Kjerulf Petersen, a senior researcher in environmental science at Aarnus University.

Neighbouring countries such as Finland, England, Poland and the Baltic nations are planning and building new nuclear plants to reduce CO2 emissions.

Bertel Lohmann Andersen, head of nuclear energy advocacy organisation Reel Energi Oplysning, said Denmark should ally itself with Sweden and Germany to construct a plant and he wanted politicians to take up the debate.

Greenpeace is sceptical, however.

‘The nuclear waste problem hasn’t been solved. The risk of reactor accidents and the danger of material used in atomic weapons spreading remains,’ said Greenpeace climate and energy spokesman Tarjei Haaland.

And the country’s governing parties have also rejected the idea.

‘We’re not opposed to nuclear power per se, but it doesn’t fit the Danish long-term energy strategy,’ Liberal Party energy spokesman Lars Christian Lilleholt explained.

Lilleholt said the country already had an energy solution that concentrated on combining heat and power stations – of which there are 665 in Denmark – with a high proportion of renewable energy.