Nearly 60% of U.S. adults favor building more nuclear power plants, the Pew Research Center found in a recent survey.
While nuclear power is more popular among Republicans by 17%, this is the first time Republicans and Democrats both hold a favorable outlook on nuclear power, Pew said in a report released this month.
Pew’s survey report, researched in April and May, found support for nuclear energy is now at 59%, up from 43% in 2020. The report says nuclear support grew among Republicans and Democrats.
Republicans and Republican-leaning adults’ support for more nuclear power stood at 69% in May 2025, up from 51% in 2016.
As for Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults, 52% favor nuclear growth in 2025, up from 38% in 2016.
Pew also found that nuclear is perhaps the least divisive energy source between the parties. Outside of nuclear, all other energy sources have a difference of partisan support ranging from 30% to 50%.
According to the survey, 67% of Republicans support coal mining, while only 17% of Democrats support it.
As for gender, Pew’s survey found that men are far more likely than women to support the expansion of nuclear power. The report found 74% of men favor nuclear power, compared to 44% of women.
The primary reason Americans said they favored nuclear power was because it is a clean or low-carbon energy source, according to the report. On the flipside, safety is the main drawback cited by opponents.
Despite the growing support for more nuclear power plants in the country, Americans still prefer expanding solar (77%) and wind power (68%) over nuclear power, according to Pew.
Under President Donald Trump’s current administration, nuclear power has been heavily prioritized to meet projected growth in power demand. Trump issued four nuclear energy-related executive orders on May 23 to streamline and deploy more nuclear reactors.
The administration has set out multiple goals for the energy source such as having 10 large reactors under construction by 2030. The United States remains the global leader in the nuclear sector with the most reactors online and generating capacity.