Almost half of the voters want to expand nuclear power

The Swedish voters’ attitude towards nuclear power has fluctuated.

Aftonbladet/Demoskop’s latest survey shows that.

Almost half of the roads also want to build out more reactors than we currently have.

The electricity crisis is a fact. Yesterday it was announced that the Russian gas giant Gazprom has stopped the supply of gas to Europe indefinitely. During Saturday, new information came that part of the gas will be driven through Ukraine.

As a response to the electricity crisis, the Swedish voters’ attitude towards nuclear power has swung, says Pelle Ahlin Olofsson, opinion analyst at Demoskop.

Want to expand

Almost 2 out of 3 Swedes are in favor of nuclear power, shows a survey by Demoskop on behalf of Aftonbladet. The survey shows that almost a quarter, 46 percent, of voters want to expand more reactors than we currently have.

– When the SOM institute asked exactly the same question in 2021, only 20 percent stated that they wanted this. In 2020, it was only 12 percent, so we have a big increase.

Among the voters of the Moderates and the Sweden Democrats, 4 out of 5 want to build more reactors than we have today.

Pelle Ahlin Olofsson says that the increase is due to many factors: partly it is a combination of higher electricity prices and partly the nuclear power issue has been raised on the right as a solution.

Will double

With the green transition, electricity use is expected to double or double in the next 20 years, which means that solutions are being sought for how we can get more electricity, says Pelle Ahlin Olofsson.

– Electricity becomes a matter of survival. The fact that Russia has also driven up gas prices has created a perfect storm that has made nuclear power more useful and seen as a solution to the problem.

The survey shows that no party’s voters have a clear majority who are against nuclear power.

– Today we see that there is a clear majority in favor of using nuclear power as 36 percentage points more want us to use it compared to phasing it out. This is remarkable as public opinion has been in favor of dismantling for the past ten years.

The right-wing bloc’s voters, M+SD+KD+L, are unanimous where 94 percent are in favor of nuclear power.

Among the voters of the left bloc, C+V+S+MP, it is more divided, where 32 percent are in favor, 29 percent are against and 39 percent are doubtful/don’t know.

– But that does not mean that they are 100 percent of the voters who are in favor of expansion, 27 percent want to phase out nuclear power but use the nuclear power reactors we have. The difference today, I would say, is that people feel that nuclear power cannot be phased out right now.

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