A disappointing study came out in the U.K., polling Britons on what they think about nuclear energy. In general, U.K. voters believe nuclear power is good for the national energy mix but are undecided on whether there should be more of it. The interesting part of the polling comes when results are broken down by gender.

Only 30% of women support the use of nuclear power, compared to 74% of men. Most shocking, 69% of women said they do not believe nuclear has low carbon dioxide emissions, compared to 32% of men.

Carbon dioxide emissions do not make my list of concerns when it comes to energy generation, but it is a good demonstration of how little people — especially women in the U.K. apparently— know about nuclear energy. It should go without saying that nuclear power produces no carbon dioxide emissions.

I have little confidence that the public of the United States is much more informed.

Today, nuclear makes up around 18% of U.S. electricity, and 9% of primary energy consumption.

But nuclear has hardly seen any new construction, just three new reactors over the course of decades. Part of that is driven by public fear. Close calls like that at 3 Mile Island and catastrophes like Fukushima and, more pointedly, Chernobyl gave many concern.

That concern was concentrated and sustained by Hollywood........

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