The Ghana Nuclear Power Programme Organization (GNPPO) and Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG) in collaboration with JAF International Cooperation Centre (JICC) Japan present a Nuclear Forum on Ghana’s Nuclear Power Programme.
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There is widespread public support for advanced nuclear energy technologies, according to a new, multinational survey of attitudes toward nuclear energy. The report is a collaborative effort by the non-governmental organisations ClearPath, Third Way, Potential Energy Coalition and RePlanet.
The large-scale online survey questioned 13,500 members of the public in eight countries – France, Germany, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, the UK and the USA – between November 2022 and January 2023.
The study found strong support for advanced nuclear energy in each country surveyed, with Poland, France and Sweden showing the highest levels of support. In all countries surveyed, environmental group members are net supporters of advanced nuclear energy. Support for advanced nuclear energy is not partisan, the report found. In all but two countries surveyed – Germany and Japan – most of the supporters of every major political party also back using advanced nuclear energy.
In Poland, 84% of respondents support advanced nuclear, with 9% opposing it. More than 75% of people in Poland believe that nuclear energy is necessary to meet climate goals, the highest level of agreement amongst the countries surveyed.
The French and Swedish populations display a clear consensus on the importance of advanced nuclear energy, with 69% of respondents in each country agreeing with using the latest nuclear energy technologies alongside other sources. In France 15% oppose it, in Sweden 13%. Moreover, majorities in both countries believe that nuclear energy should be the primary choice for energy. Energy independence was identified as the principal reason driving their support for advanced nuclear.
The survey also found most Germans – including environmental group members and supporters – support advanced nuclear. In the country, which recently closed its last nuclear power plants, 51% of respondents said they support the use of advanced nuclear energy. Members and supporters of environmental groups had the same results. German supporters also cited energy independence as the strongest argument in favour of using nuclear technology.
The study found that almost all the opposition to advanced nuclear comes from a small, distinct segment of the population (15%) described as generally older, sceptical about innovation, and unmovable in their views. All the other groups identified by the report overwhelmingly support advanced nuclear energy, even if they vary widely in their political outlook, economic position, and views on the environment and climate change.
“It is often thought that nuclear power is unpopular,” said RePlanet co-founder Mark Lynas. “Our results show conclusively that this is not the case, and that nuclear as a source of clean, carbon-free energy commands majority support in every single country. This majority support even extends in most cases to members of environmental groups and Green parties and shows that policymakers and investors should not fear public opinion when making urgently needed decisions about supporting new advanced nuclear deployment.”
“Real world concerns about energy security and climate change have a way of focusing people’s minds,” added Josh Freed, senior vice president for the climate and energy programme at Third Way. “That is why growing numbers of people in the US and across the world are turning to advanced nuclear as one of the sources of clean, reliable, and secure energy they support. It is encouraging that policymakers, including most of the countries surveyed, are responding with ambitious policies that embrace advanced nuclear as part of their energy strategies.”
“We’ve known for years that public opinion on nuclear energy has been changing, but we haven’t understood what’s behind that shift or what it means for the clean energy transition,” Potential Energy Coalition CEO John Marshall said. “, the degree of support from environmentalists is noteworthy and perhaps contrary to general perception.”
The report noted that the survey confirmed some “big gaps” in people’s knowledge about the biggest benefits of nuclear. “It is hard for people to value the clean-energy role of nuclear when almost half the population (46% in our survey) believe that ‘nuclear power emits more carbon dioxide than wind or solar power.'”
An ongoing study of the feasibility of using advanced nuclear reactors to power Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus in Indiana has found small modular reactors (SMRs) to be one of the most promising emerging technologies and a potential carbon-free option that should be further explored to help meet the university’s future, long-term power needs.
The interim report is published a year after Purdue University and Duke Energy began the study. Amongst other things, the study has confirmed that SMRs are a “potential option to zero carbon emissions” with “significant safety and other advantages”. Building SMRs would offer economic benefits both to Purdue and to Indiana, creating “thousands of temporary construction jobs and hundreds of high-wage permanent jobs” and generating millions of dollars in local taxes.
Advocating for state and federal policy and funding needs is one of the key recommendations of the report. These include regulatory outcomes and economic incentives, nuclear engineering, and science workforce development programmes, launching a public-private advanced reactor development programme, and creating a fuel availability programme. Efforts to engage stakeholders should continue, building from a six-part lecture series which reached an audience of 4,900 people between August 2022 and February 2023 and helped build awareness of the benefits and opportunities of new nuclear development.
The interim report also recommends that cost and economic studies, site evaluations and additional technology assessments should be carried out. No technology has yet been selected, and no decision made, to build a new nuclear plant at Purdue, but the report recommends SMR and advanced reactor projects should be monitored to enable a more detailed technology evaluation as first-of-a-kind projects advance. It also recommends a siting study and timeline to identify the best locations for advanced nuclear to support both the university and the Indiana grid, and “potentially develop an early site permit application for the selected site.” Excess power beyond the campus’s needs would be provided to the state’s grid.
“Our early findings show that advanced nuclear technology presents a potential path to zero emissions for our university, and we intend to continue our teamwork with Duke Energy in the next phase of the study,” said Purdue University President Mung Chiang, adding that the collaboration between Duke Energy, the university and energy and policy experts “demonstrates the critical importance of this exploration into advanced nuclear energy and what it could mean not only for our campus, but also the community, state and nation”.
“To reach a clean, carbon-free future, we need to explore a broad range of technologies, including advanced nuclear,” said Duke Energy Indiana President Stan Pinegar said. “We need to study this and other options further, and this report starts a conversation about how we might transition to carbon-free power that can operate on demand in concert with renewable energy, such as solar and wind.”
Stakeholder and communications experts met representatives from academia, government, and industry at the IAEA to explore creative and innovative ways to engage stakeholders and “reimagine” nuclear energy, which provides a quarter of all low-carbon electricity yet still struggles for public acceptance.
Over 60 participants from 32 countries and five international organizations came together for the three-day Workshop on Reimagining Nuclear Energy, held at the Agency’s Vienna headquarters on 26-28 April. The workshop built on an event held last year at the International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in the 21st Century, which also featured works from a nuclear energy art contest organized by Generation Atomic in collaboration with the IAEA.
In his concluding remarks, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told participants to be bold in their communications and outreach about nuclear energy’s role in addressing climate change. “There is no need to start our conversations being shy,” Mr Grossi said. “What we are doing is part of the solution to a global existential problem. And I think this affirmation is very important—because it’s true.”
Interest in embarking on or expanding nuclear power is growing worldwide as public opinion increasingly recognizes its role in reducing emissions for a net-zero world while ensuring supply of energy. Thirty-two countries use nuclear power, and some 30 others are interested in, or embarking on, its introduction, with new reactors under construction in Bangladesh, Egypt and Turkey. In the high case scenario of its latest projections on nuclear energy ,the IAEA sees capacity more than doubling to 873 gigawatts net electrical (GW(e)) by 2050, compared with current levels of around 368 GW(e).
Still, public acceptance is continuing to be a key barrier to nuclear energy deployment in many countries. Explaining nuclear energy, strengthening relationships, and building trust with stakeholders remains key to the successful implementation, operation, and expansion of all nuclear facilities, including nuclear power plants. “To gain community support and public acceptance of nuclear energy, we need to understand opinions and concerns, then respond appropriately,” said Sharon Kanana, a nuclear medicine technologist at Kenyatta University Hospital in Nairobi and is Vice President of the Kenyan Young Generation in Nuclear.
Highly interactive, the workshop featured a diverse range of presentations, music, videos, panel talks and hands-on exercises. The event was part of a new drive by the IAEA to meet the growing needs of countries in this area in developing programmes for engaging stakeholders and communicating about the benefits and risks of nuclear technologies.
“I seldom attend an event with so much diversity in the room, not only in populations but in terms of representing a diversity of thought,” said Zion Lights, a science communicator from the United Kingdom. “We all learned something new. We were all challenged by some of the things we heard. And based on what I’ve heard from others at this workshop and from feedback from my talk, we all want to build on the ideas that we’ve developed here.”
Participants showcased their efforts and strategies on public outreach for nuclear energy, exchanging experiences and lessons learned from engaging and communicating with various stakeholders. Topics included public opinion research on nuclear energy; opera singing with pro-nuclear lyrics in the United States; art works portraying a new, positive and futuristic vision of nuclear energy; the importance of public information centres at nuclear power plants; the need for personally engaging with local communities, addressing their needs and concerns; and working with young schoolchildren who have not had any previous education in nuclear science.
Lujain Khalaileh, a former schoolteacher who is now a nuclear engineer with the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission, described how she once handled misinformation about nuclear energy among her students by organizing in-class debates on the differences between nuclear energy used for military purposes versus its peaceful applications in energy production, medicine, industry, and agriculture.
“The term nuclear was reimagined positively by my students,” she said. “And now we are working as a team at the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission to create a new image of nuclear energy in different areas of Jordan by conducting many activities with our stakeholders. My participation at this workshop has definitely added value for the stakeholder involvement strategy of Jordan’s nuclear energy programme. Sharing ideas with all outstanding participants from over 30 countries has been a great experience.”
As the IAEA gears up for its first-ever international conference on stakeholder engagement, set for 2025, the Agency is developing new services to meet national needs, including an advisory service as well as a school on stakeholder engagement. Input from the workshop will be distilled into a report featuring highlights, main messages and good practices.
“This event brought together those who have built national nuclear programs, who are about to build programs, those who have promoted nuclear around the world, and some who have only recently discovered the promise of nuclear,” said Mark Nelson, a Chicago-based nuclear engineer and Founder and Managing Director at Radiant Energy Group. “The workshop itself achieved what it sought in its title: a reimagining of nuclear energy for our times.”
The Ghana Nuclear Power Programme Organisation (GNPPO) has engaged the leadership of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) in Accra on the progress of Ghana’s nuclear power programme.
The engagement took place at the National Headquarters of the GMA at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. The GMA team was led by the president, Dr. Frank Serebour and the GNPPO, by Prof. Seth Kofi Debrah, the Director of the Nuclear Power Institute, the technical arm of the GNPPO.
Prof. Seth Kofi Debrah delivered a presentation, which recounted Ghana’s nuclear journey and the status of the nuclear power programme. He explained the reason Ghana needs a reliable baseload, having exhausted almost all hydro potential and the fact that climate climate action seeks to militate against the option of coal. He also made reference to industry’s continual call for cheaper energy to lower the high cost of production. In the case of thermal sources, he explained that although the country currently has oil and gas, it will experience a depletion of the resource, a situation that calls for a plan to include a baseload that guarantees resilience, reliability and affordability.
In response to safety concerns and siting considerations, Prof. Debrah explained that safety is the utmost priority and steps were being taken to ensure the protection of people and the environment from harmful effects of ionizing radiation, which is a fundamental safety principle. He stated the integrity of the containment building, establishment of exclusion zone and passive safety features of modern reactors are all safety systems have brought tremendous safety improvements and assurance. He further assured that the candidate sites were selected based on extensive study and recourse to very critical parameters. “With regard to the site for the nuclear power plant, exclusionary measures are critically considered. For example, the reactor must be close to a large water body, far from densely populated area. The site must also have the appropriate geology and hydrology, as well as low seismicity ”, he said.
Responding to a question about whether communities around the preferred sites have been engaged, Prof. Debrah said that there have been continuous engagements, which have led to the formation of a joint working committee,with some selected community members playing a critical on the committee. He revealed that seismic equipment have been installed at the candidate sites and the caretakers of the installations are from the communities. Prof. Debrah concluded by assuring the GMA executives of the GNPPO’s readiness for further engagement.
Dr. Francis Serebour thanked the team for the insightful engagement and stated that the GMA was ready to partner with the GNPPO. He said that despite the quest for sustainable energy, there is the need to proritise health and safety. He assured the GNPPO of the GMA’s support in all efforts aimed at achieving health and safety. He concluded by stating the need to start looking for opportunities to train some medical doctors in the field of radiation oncology.
