nucleareurope discusses perception of nuclear at PIME 2024 conference

From 14 to 15 October 2024, the European Nuclear Society (ENS) organised a conference on nuclear communications: PIME 2024. On this occasion, nucleareurope Communications and Advocacy Director Jessica Johnson gave a presentation on the evolution of nuclear energy perceptions, and moderated several discussion and workshop sessions.

In her presentation, Jessica detailed the recent shift in public opinion towards nuclear energy across Europe, citing surveys in countries such as Belgium, Finland, the Czech Republic or the UK showing significant growth in favourable opinions of nuclear energy throughout the past decade, with a majority of the population now supporting nuclear new build and the continued operation of the existing nuclear fleet in those countries.

“Opinions throughout Europe are evolving, and this has been reflected at the political level as well, with many EU States recently announcing plans to invest in or continue using nuclear energy” said Jessica, listing multiple examples of political decisions to support the development of nuclear.

Following her intervention, Jessica moderated the first day’s closing plenary session, where participants exchanged ideas and discussed outcomes of the day’s discussions. The session also allowed to prepare for the second day’s workshops, on the topics of the partnership between Communications and Human Resources, of the gender gap in nuclear support, and of local stakeholder engagement.

On the second day, Jessica moderated the workshop on the gender gap in nuclear support, which explored actionable strategies to address perception differences between men and women on nuclear energy questions. The group discussed the potential reasons for the existing gender gap in nuclear support, and highlighted the importance of understanding the underlying causes of this gap to be able to communicate effectively to all audiences.