Voters Less Concerned About Threat of Japanese Radiation

Though American voters are still following news of the nuclear plant crisis in Japan, they are less worried about radiation reaching the United States.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that 39% are at least somewhat concerned that radiation from Japan’s damaged nuclear power plants will reach the United States, including 15% who are Very Concerned.

But the overall finding is down from 45% at the end of last week and 43% earlier that week.
 

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of voters are not concerned radiation from Japan will reach the United States, with 18% who are Not At All Concerned. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Ninety percent (90%) of voters say they are following news of the devastating earthquake in Japan that led to the nuclear plant problems, including 56% who are following Very Closely. Voters have been closely following the story since news of the earthquake broke earlier this month.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide was conducted on March 24-25, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.