Aleskey Grazhdankin, Deputy Director of Levada Center

– Realists understand that nuclear energy is real alternative to other sources

45% of residents of Kaliningrad show a positive attitude towards the construction of Baltic NPP in the region, say the results of the public opinion poll conducted by Kaliningrad Express monitoring group in May 2009. 19% support the project, 26% do not object to it if it complies with ecological and technical standards, 43% object, 5% do not care, 7% cannot decide. During the poll conducted by Tsirkon group in Mar 2008 only 32% showed positive attitude towards the project. So, we can see that the support for the project is growing.

The results of these two polls cannot be compared as one of them concerns a region while the other — a city. The questions were also different: in one case it was the attitude towards nuclear energy, in general, in the other – towards a particular project. But, in general, I can say that tolerance towards the Baltic NPP project was quite expectable. Tsirkon’s poll was conducted in 2007 and 2008 and demonstrated that people have begun to show more realistic approach to their energy needs and that they are seriously concerned that they may be left without energy.

If in 2007 as many as 50% of the questioned supported the development of alternative technologies (technologies that in fact cannot yet replace traditional sources energy), in 2008 the number of the advocates of alternative sources decreased while the number of people supporting water and nuclear energies grew. Less people expressed support for thermal energy. So, the results of the last poll were quite natural.

Unfortunately, we do not have statistics concerning the general attitude towards NPP construction in Russia. We can only say what our people think about nuclear energy, in general. The last surveys have shown that people have ceased to fear nuclear energy and are no longer afraid of the possibility of Chernobyl-type accidents. Realists understand that nuclear energy is a real alternative to other sources and is not the worst one. Here too we have certain risks: any complicated technology is a potential source of risk. Simply, we must try to minimize them. If such a poll was conducted 15 years ago the number of opponents would have been much bigger.