Public Opinion about Nuclear Energy - Year 2015 Poll

Public information is an ongoing activity of the Information Centre that was established within the Nuclear Training Centre ICJT at the Jozef Stefan Institute 22 years ago. It informs the visitors about nuclear energy and about Krsko Nuclear Power Plant. The main target group of information activity are schoolchildren and their teachers. Most of them are from the 8th and 9th grade of elementary school, age 14 to 15. Every year between 7000 and 8000 youngsters visit the Information Centre. Since 1993 there have been 3421 visits, resulting in around 160,000 visitors. The visit consists of a live lecture about nuclear technology followed by a demonstration of radioactivity and a guided tour of permanent exhibition. In the springtime when we get the most visitors some 1000 youngsters are polled. The youngsters are always polled before they listen to the lecture or visit the exhibition in order to obtain their unbiased opinion based on the knowledge from everyday life. This paper reports the results of the poll performed in spring 2015 and compares the results with the results from previous years. Poll results show rather poor comprehension of nuclear energy, radiation and radioactive waste. Relative majority of youngsters consistently recognizes that NPP Krsko would be difficult to replace by renewables. More youngsters are in favour of the second unit of NPP Krsko than against it.