Public support for nuclear power has remained low one year after a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami crippled a nuclear power plant in Japan and triggered a national safety review of U.S. reactors, according to a new poll released yesterday.

But a recent industry poll showed considerably more support for nuclear energy.

In a telephone survey, 49 percent of those asked said they would oppose the construction of more nuclear power reactors in the United States, compared with 44 percent of poll respondents a year ago. Forty-six percent said they would support new construction (the same percentage as in 2011), and 5 percent were unsure. ORC International conducted the study for the think tank Civil Society Institute. It had a 3-point margin of error. The pollsters said the numbers reflect a decline in support for nuclear power since the Japanese earthquake.

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Seventy-two percent of those asked answered "no" to the question, "Do you think taxpayers should take on the risk for the construction of new nuclear power reactors in the United States through billions of dollars in new federal loan guarantees for new reactors?" Twenty-four percent of those asked said they would support federal loan guarantees, while 3 percent said they were unsure or didn't know.

The telephone survey of 1,032 Americans was taken Feb. 23-26.

Peter Bradford, a Vermont law school professor and former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told reporters during a conference call yesterday that the study shows the uphill battle new reactors will face in the United States. Bradford said a lack of public confidence is a real "coffin nail" for new nuclear reactors because companies need votes to garner federal loan guarantees and favorable state rate structures to build plants that would otherwise be uneconomical.

"For an industry now completely dependent on pervasive political support in order to gain access to the taxpayers' wallets through loan guarantees and other federal subsidies and the consumers' wallets through rate guarantees to cover canceled plants and cost overruns, public skepticism of this magnitude is a near fatal flaw," Bradford said.

Most of those asked supported renewables and energy efficiency over the expansion of nuclear power.

Fifty-one percent of those asked said they would support a moratorium on new nuclear reactor construction in the United States if increased energy efficiency and off-the-shelf renewable technologies such as wind and solar "could meet our energy demands for the near term," according to the survey. Forty-two percent of those asked said they would not support such a moratorium, and 6 percent said they didn't know or weren't sure.

The survey arrives as the NRC and nuclear industry are implementing post-Fukushima safety upgrades to assure the public that reactors are secure after the March 11, 2011, temblor and tsunami that triggered explosions and radioactive leaks at Japan's Fukushima plant.

But despite CSI's unfavorable outlook for nuclear power, the Nuclear Energy Institute released a survey last month that found support for nuclear power among Americans has stabilized since last March.

NEI released a poll conducted by Bisconti Research Inc. that found 58 percent of those asked believe the United States "should definitely build more nuclear power plants in the future." Bisconti conducted a phone survey from Feb. 17-19 of 1,000 Americans, which had a 3-point margin of error.

When asked, "How important do you think nuclear energy will be in meeting this nation's electricity needs in the years ahead?" 42 percent of those surveyed said nuclear power will be "very important" and 38 percent said it would be "somewhat important," according to the poll. Fifteen percent said it would not be important, and 5 percent were unsure.

The NRC is also advancing nuclear projects, and four of the panel's five members last month voted to approve construction of the first new nuclear power plant in the United States in more than three decades. Notably, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko opposed that approval because the license contained no requirement for Southern Co. to make post-Fukushima safety upgrades.