Public Attitudes to Nuclear Hard to Shift

Wellock’s history shows that, despite catastrophic accidents (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima) and near‑misses like Davis‑Besse, U.S. public support for nuclear power settled into a stubborn band (~40–60%) from the 1990s onward. That stability suggests cultural and political anchors (not just technical performance) govern nuclear acceptance. — If public comfort with nuclear is resilient to accidents, policymakers and industry must focus on political framing and institutional trust, not only on engineering fixes, to expand or constrain nuclear buildout.