Czech public opinion on issues of radioactive waste and deep geological repository – July 2021

In its July 2021 survey, the Our Society series included a battery of questions on issues of the energy system, with a detailed focus on nuclear energy and some aspects of handling radioactive waste. The study inquired how well informed about nuclear waste citizens themselves feel, how reliable they consider different sources of information on nuclear safety, how they think spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste are currently being handled in the country, how today’s society should respond to the problem of radioactive waste, and how they view different issues of building a deep geological repository of radioactive waste. Only one in five Czech citizens consider themselves well informed about matters of radioactive waste. In matters of nuclear safety, the public considers scientists and experts the most reliable; relatively high levels of reliability are also attached to the State Office for Nuclear Safety and, to a lesser extent, “the government authority concerned with the disposal of radioactive waste”. Three in five citizens believe that today’s society should actively address the problem of radioactive waste. Half of the public find a deep geological repository to be the safest way of addressing the problem of radioactive waste. More than three in four citizens believe that municipalities should have the right to refuse the building of a deep geological repository in their territory