Nuclear gender gap wider in Australia than in U.S.

Results from a recent Australian public opinion survey indicate that women in Australia are much less likely to support nuclear energy than men in that country. The findings of the survey, conducted by the market research firm DemosAu on behalf of the Australian Conservation Foundation, somewhat reflect the findings about gender differences regarding nuclear energy in the United States-though the Australian gender split is much wider.

Controversy stirred: The question of whether to introduce nuclear power to Australia has become a subject of increasing debate in the nation. The debate was spurred by the creation in 2023 of the Australian Submarine Agency to manage AUKUS. AUKUS is the Australian-United Kingdom-United States partnership established in 2021 that gives Australia a mandate to own, operate, and staff a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines by 2040.

Controversy was further stirred this past June when Peter Dutton, Liberal Party leader of the opposition to the Labor-led government, proposed building five large nuclear reactors and two small modular reactors by 2050. A recent poll suggests that the Dutton-led coalition is on track to win a majority of parliamentary seats in the 2025 federal election.

Sharp divide: DemosAu polled about 6,000 Australian adults for the nuclear energy survey. The results showed that 51 percent of surveyed men believed that "nuclear energy would be good for Australia," compared with only 26 percent of women. The company's director of research, George Hasanakos, observed that this 25-point gender gap was "the sharpest divide in attitudes between men and women" that DemosAu had ever found for any issue. Furthermore, the wide nuclear gender gap between Australian men and women was found to exist regardless of age.

Additional findings: Only 38 percent of the Australian men would support the location of a nuclear power plant near their city of residence, compared with an even smaller 18 percent of women. Regarding nuclear waste, 43 percent of surveyed men responded that the transportation of such waste would not be worth the safety risk, compared with 57 percent of women not wanting to risk it.

Details about the DemosAu survey-as well as an associated survey conducted by the Australia-based climate advocacy organization 1 Million Women-can be downloaded from the Australian Conservation Foundation website.

American attitudes: The slim majority of Australian men that supported nuclear energy in the DemosAu survey is far smaller than the pro-nuclear attitude among American men. The 2024 National Nuclear Energy Public Opinion Survey, conducted by Bisconti Research, revealed that 86 percent of men in the United States somewhat or strongly favor the use of nuclear energy, compared with 70 percent of U.S. women. Details of the latest Bisconti survey were discussed in the September 2024 issue of Nuclear News.