Environment

Opinion Polls Differ On Restarting San Onofre

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published October 8, 2012 at 3:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

Opinion Polls Differ On Restarting San Onofre

Competing polls reach different conclusions about public support for restarting the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant.

Before a major NRC public meeting tomorrow on the status of San Onofre, the operator and an environmental group have both released public opinion polls.

Edison's Poll

Poll conducted for Edison on Public Opinions on Nuclear Power, and restarting San Onofre

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Friends of the Earth Poll

Poll done for Friends of the Earth on public attitudes to nuclear power and shutting down San Onofre

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Southern California Edison’s poll shows 60 percent of people living around the plant support continuing to use nuclear power as one way to provide electricity in California.

Sixty-five percent would support restarting San Onofre if the NRC gives its approval.

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However, a poll by Friends of the Earth, which believes the power plant should be shut down, found 58 percent of nearby residents support a shutdown. This was after the situation was described with no mention of Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversight.

The FOE poll found more than half of those polled think nuclear power plants operating in California are safe, but only a quarter are not concerned about the possibility of a nuclear accident.

Interestingly, both polls showed a majority (58 percent) support replacing nuclear power with renewable resources like wind and solar. The Edison poll got that response even when people were reminded it could mean new transmission lines are built through their neighborhoods.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.