Americans’ support for nuclear power has fallen, as 70% of those surveyed in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll say they’ve grown more concerned about the industry’s safety based on the crisis unfolding at reactors in Japan.

Americans oppose building nuclear plants by a 47%-44% ratio, according to the poll. Support for constructing reactors was at 57% when Gallup asked a similar question about a week before Friday’s earthquake and tsunami left Japan struggling to avert catastrophic meltdowns and fires at three damaged nuclear plants.

The new poll shows that worries about a similar disaster in the USA have climbed amid the crisis in Japan: 39% of those surveyed say they’ve grown “a lot more concerned,” and 31% say they’ve become “a little more concerned.”

The poll of 1,004 adults has a margin of error of +/–4 percentage points.

Those concerns were reflected Tuesday in Congress as members of both parties quizzed federal officials about the likelihood that similar problems could occur at U.S. nuclear power plants.

Americans “should have full confidence” in the safety of the 104 nuclear power reactors across the USA, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in response to questions from lawmakers at a hearing on President Obama’s proposed energy budget for 2012. Nevertheless, he said, the administration will be “gathering whatever lessons that can be learned (from the events in Japan) … and will apply them to all the nuclear facilities we have in the United States.”

Chu noted that the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have sent a few dozen staff members to Japan to offer technical assistance “and also, for our own sake, to know what’s happening directly.”

Opinion among lawmakers at the hearing mirrored the public sentiment measured in the poll: Republicans are slightly more likely to support development of nuclear energy and Democrats a bit more inclined to oppose it.

“I am not straying from my support for nuclear energy as a vital component of America’s present and future energy mix,” said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. “It is just as important to dispel overstated fears as it is to discuss legitimate concerns.”

Several lawmakers said the events in Japan are particularly worrisome because the reactors in peril there are similar in design to roughly two dozen operating in the USA. What’s more, they said, Japan is a country widely viewed as among the most prepared in the world to handle such crises.

Japan “is not some Third World country with rinky-dink technology,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. Noting that the Japanese had multiple fail-safe systems in place and had used computer models and other sophisticated planning tools to prepare for such events, she asked, “Do we really have the kinds of modeling we need to develop nuclear energy safely in this country?”

Chu said the administration remains committed to nuclear power as one component of a balanced energy strategy and reiterated support for an administration plan to provide more than $50 billion in loan guarantees for companies seeking financing to build nuclear power plants.

(Source: USA Today)