According to a survey published in June 2022, 88% of the neighbours of nuclear power plants are favourable to nuclear energy. [66] Even better: 91% hold a favourable impression of their local power plant, and 78% would find a new reactor acceptable at the plant site. The survey considered residents within a 10 mile radius around 52 operational plants across the USA, excluding households with nuclear workers to avoid conflicts of interests. This was the ninth survey of a series that started in 2005, always showing a similar level of enthusiasm and support.
Why such a high support rate? Well, a nuclear power plant usually comes with a series of benefits. It creates a significant and stable revenue stream for local taxes. For example the municipality of Huy, in Belgium, receives up to 13 millions euros per year from the Tihange nuclear power plant—over a quarter of the municipality’s annual budget. [67] In the US, local taxes and fees on a nuclear power plant can represent over half of the county and school budgets. [68]
Most importantly, however, a nuclear power plant means “good jobs for local people at the plant and in local businesses that provide services to the plant”—that is actually a statement from the survey that 92% of the respondents agreed with. A typical 1 GWe nuclear reactor requires approximately 500 workers for operations and maintenance, almost all of whom will be located within 20 km. [69] Episodic events, such as refuelling, will require an additional 200 to 600 temporary workers. [70] Coincidentally, evidence tends to indicate that home values actually increase with the opening of nuclear facilities in the area. [71]
On top of these comes the much larger number of workers in the supply chain, research, or even safety authorities. In France, for example, the nuclear industry represents over 220.000 employees. [72] France is a major atomic power on the global scene, with roughly 60 GWe of nuclear capacity providing 70% of its electricity production. According to the statistics discussed above, this would require a workforce of 30,000 full-time equivalent for operations and maintenance. That is only around 15% of the total workforce. What about more modest countries? In 2009, the nuclear sector of Belgium, excluding medicine and industrial applications, represented almost 5.300 direct jobs. At the time, the country had approximately 6 GWe of nuclear capacity, thus 3.000 full-time equivalent for operations and maintenance, slightly over half of the total. Moreover, each direct job drove almost two indirect and induced jobs. [73]
All these jobs come with above average salaries, as they require higher levels of education. Moreover, they are safe. In the nuclear sector, this is tracked by the industrial safety accident rate, which measures the number of employee accidents that result in loss of work time, restricted work, or fatalities, per 200,000 workers hours, which is roughly equivalent to 100 full-time workers during one year. In the US, this indicator declined from 0.38 accidents per 200,000 hours in 1997 down to 0.03 as of 2014—that means that if you took a sample of 10,000 workers, there would be only 3 accidents to report. But that number kept decreasing: 0.02 in 2019, and finally 0.00 in 2019 and 2020. [74] In other words: there were virtually no accidents. At the global level, the World Association of Nuclear Operators reports that almost 90% of the plants met the target of 0.50, with encouraging improvements over time. That is not as good as the US, but still outstanding. [75]
Another interesting metric is the incidence rate of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses. In 2021, there were 2.9 of those per 200,000 workers hours across the US for all industries including private, state, and local government. The same metric was 1.7 when zooming in on utilities only, which is already a significant reduction. Amazingly, it was only 0.2 for nuclear electric power generation—the same as legal services and telephone call centres which, you would admit, sound far more safe. [76]
How is this possible? Intuitively, you would expect nuclear workers to be exposed to more accidents: in addition to the risks associated with any large industrial facilities, such as heat stress, falling, or even electrical shocks, there are the radiation-related hazards. Once again, the answer is that the nuclear industry is under unprecedented scrutiny—for very valid reasons—and through human ingenuity we can make dangerous activities safe.
All these elements lead to the YIMBY phenomenon—yes, in my backyard!
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