2.  ATTITUDES TOWARDS NUCLEAR POWER

Attitudes towards nuclear power have been the most important stimulant and watershed in the energy debate for a long time. It is the clearest element in the realignment of the front lines in energy policy and stands behind all opinions one way or another. In practice, the other energy alternatives and their pros and cons, as well as the development of the entire electricity generation system, are always assessed in relation to the nuclear power alternative. This deliberation took the form of open antithesis in Parliament's decision on nuclear power (2002) and the debate leading up to it.

2.1. Further construction of nuclear power

The study has followed the general attitudes but also specifically the attitudes towards further construction of nuclear power. The question asked in the form of a claim 'A fifth nuclear power plant should be built in Finland' has been included in all measurements since 1984. The long duration of this trench warfare is shown by the fact that this question has kept its relevance for as long as twenty years. When the question was constructed, it was hardly thought that it would still be topical in the new millennium. The form of this question will not be outdated until the fifth nuclear power plant has been built.

The number of people in favour of further construction is now greater (44%) than the number of people rejecting it (36%). A change towards increased reservations can be observed in the distribution compared to the previous measurement. When stating this, we must observe the special nature of the comparison period. The 2003 result represented the most sympathetic attitude towards nuclear power in the entire follow-up period and a clear differentiation from the previous sceptical attitude that held on for a long time. A larger shift in the time series happened only in 1986, when the Chernobyl accident resulted in a collapse in the rising positive attitude towards nuclear power in Finland. No single measurement before 2003 had shown a distribution indicating greater support for acceptance than for rejection. The present result is the second most favourable for nuclear power in the entire follow-up period [Figure 3.].

This is illustrated when examining the differences in percentages of those who support and those who oppose the further construction of nuclear power. The present value +7 (which means that there are 7 percentage points more in favour of than against) deviates from the results in 1984-2002, as was the case with the previous measurement. The closest results - the least negative ones - were the distributions of 1997 (-8) and 2002 (-10) [Figure 4.]. A certain tendency of reversion from the peak value of the previous measurement (+14) is undoubted, however. The phenomenon is more clearly visible in concrete opinions on a fifth nuclear power plant than in general attitudes towards nuclear power (cf. Figure 2b.).