Daily Kos 6/5 “Nuclear Power and Public Opinion: What the polls say,” 2012, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/05/1097574/-Nuclear-Power-and-Public-Opinion-What-the-polls-say
Conclusion 2: Americans do not think nuclear power is “clean” energy, and still don’t want topay for it.¶ Jumping back to ORC International, their March 2012 poll found this:¶About two out of three Americans (66 percent)---including 58 percent of Republicans, 65 percent of Independents, and 75 percent of Democrats -- agree that the term “‘clean energy standard’ should not be used to describe any energy plan that involves nuclear energy, coal-fired power, and natural gas that comes from hydraulic fracturing, also known as ‘fracking.’”¶ and this:¶About three out of four Americans (73 percent) agree that “federal spending on energy should focus ondeveloping the energy sources of tomorrow, such as wind and solar, and not theenergy sources of yesterday, such as nuclear power.” Fewer than one in four (22 percent) say that “federal spending on energy should focus on existing energy sources, such as nuclear, and not emerging energy sources, such as wind and solar.”¶ Meanwhile, the New York Times in May reported on a Harvard/Yale poll (also behind a paywall), conducted in 2011 but released in May 2012, that found that Americans are willing to pay an average of $162/year more for clean energy than they are paying now—an average 13% increase in electric bills. But when clean energy was defined as including nuclear power or natural gas, that