In 2008 , the Energy Information Administration projected almost 17 gigawatts of new nuclear power reactors by 2030 , but in its 2011 projections , it " scaled back the 2030 projection to just five " . Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster , public support for building nuclear power plants in the U.S. dropped to 43 % , slightly lower than it was immediately after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 , according to a CBS News poll . A survey conducted in April 2011 found that 64 percent of Americans opposed the construction of new nuclear reactors . A survey sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute , conducted in September 2011 , found that " 62 percent of respondents said they favor the use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity in the United States , with 35 percent opposed "
Three Mile Island accident
Three Mile Island accident
Nuclear energy policy of the United States