Reply #4: Oh, the part about "true or false, are new nuclear plants being built in our country" was amazing.

[joshcryer]

Most respondents in Finland, Bulgaria and France are aware of this fact. However, the level of information differs from one country to the other: though 87% of respondents in Finland answer the question correctly, this percentage is 16 points lower in Bulgaria and slightly exceeds 50% in France (54%). Interviewees in Slovakia seem to be somewhat confused about the situation of new NPPs in their country; 47% give the correct answer but an almost equal proportion (44%) believe it is untrue that NPPs are presently under construction.

In the United Kingdom, 46% of respondents believe that nuclear power plants are under construction there, though this is not the case. The UK was actually the first country to use nuclear energy to generate power for large-scale civilian use, opening its first plant in 1956. The last new reactor was opened in 1995, and the country has been steadily decommissioning its old plants, with many set to close by 2023. However, in 2008, the government gave the go-ahead for a new generation of nuclear power stations, and discussions in order to identify the best sites for new reactors, streamline the planning processes etc. are currently ongoing35. This could explain why such a significant percentage of UK respondents think that the construction of NPPs is a fact.