Thursday 1 February 2018

‘Public are clued up about nuclear waste’

Public knowledge about the way the UK manages it radioactive waste is at its highest point on record.

That’s according to the latest BEIS Public Attitude Tracker (PAT), which is now on its 24th wave of finding out what the public think about a variety of energy issues.

The survey of 2,078 households across the UK reveals a fifth of the population think they knew a lot or a fair amount about nuclear waste, whilst 81% knew not very much or nothing at all - this is an increase from the previous wave, in which 14% said they knew a lot or a fair amount.

Older men in higher social classes tended to know the most about the various technologies used.

Worries over paying for energy bills remained at similar levels to previous waves, with 22%
either very or fairly worried about paying their energy bills.

Consumers’ levels of trust in energy suppliers showed little change from recent waves - more than half stated they would not be switching supplier within the next year.

The proportion of people that claim to give a lot of thought to saving energy in the home
has also remained stable over recent waves - around a quarter claimed to give a lot of thought to saving energy at home, whilst 50% claimed to think about it a fair amount.

Support for nuclear and renewables remained very steady since the last wave of the attitude tracker.